The Heart Of Gemini
by Trance-Gemmy
Summary: An Andromeda Fanfic, HarperTrance,completed.The andromeda meet redwarf crew, Trance is dying, the crew find a artifacr, had it got something to do with Trance? Read chapter 3 for main story, redwarf crew are extras! TranceHarper.
1. Chapter 1

**COMMENTS:**

I thought it would be cool for the andromeda crew to meet the Red Dwarf crew. In this Fanfic, there is romance between Harper and Trance, Lister and Beka, and a little bit of Dylan and Beka too. The storyline was pretty much made up as i went along, but it turned out pretty good. The storys main focus is Trance. The real meat of the story only kicks in at about chapter 3. Chapter one and Two builds up character relationships and introduces the red dwarf crew. Even if you have never seen Red Dwarf, It will not hurt the storytelling in anyway, since the red dwarf characters really dont play much of a part in the overall story, this is very much an Andromeda Fanfic. It is set in season 3, after Tyr leaves. Neither Tyr or Rhade are in this story. Oh well, Please R+R.

Lister emerged from the shower, his towel wrapped firmly around his legs. He proceeded to walk over to the mirror, and began to shave. He tilted the mirror in an attempt to get a better view of the side of his face, to see the reflection of Rimmer standing behind him. He turned around to see rimmer, hands behind his back, giving him one of his smug grins.

"Rimmer, do you mind? Im not even dressed" Lister said, returning to his shave. Rimmer just ignored him and said "Listy, Listy, Listy... You really need to start working out. Look at all that flab..." Lister paused, and then patted his belly "Yeah, i know. Its all mine. I worked hard to achive it!" Rimmer continued to wear his smug face. "Really though lister, it cant be healthy. I mean, 3 currys a day, everyday, for years?" Lister continued to shave, cutting himself on the chin "Yeah well, if i die of a heart attack tomorrow it wouldent bother me. I aint got much of a life to live now have I?" Rimmers face turned into a slightly angry looking expression "Lister, You take that life of yours for granted! Look at me, I am a hologram. I am not alive, but i wish i was. If i had your life, i would be more than gratefull" Lister turned and walked through Rimmer "Besides lister, Your life may turn out pretty good. For all you know, tommorow you could meet the love of your life, you could even discover that you are infact the god of an alien empire, and live a life of happiness and wealth" Lister laughed "Yeah, Or i could just waste my life away on board this heap of junk from now untill i die, having to listen to you and your stupid voice and a deranged cat"

"Who are you calling deranged? OUUUWWWW! Im looking good!" the cat screamed entering the room, twirling around and checking himself out in the mirror. He was wearing a bright yellow tuxedo, perfectly ironed without a crease in sight "Wait, Is that an out of place hair i see? Red alert!" He pulled out his comb and proceeded to fix the single hair that was sticking out in an un-styled fasion. "Phew, Red alert over! OOUUWW!"

"Hi cat" lister said with a sigh. The cat began to fumble about with listers flinstone memorbilear collection. "Cat, dont play with those!" The cat knocked one of the figurines on the floor "CAAAT!" Lister said. "What are you blabering about lister, its only a die cast fred flinstone" rimmer moaned. Lister picked up the figure "For your information, I happen to like fred flinstone. Well in the eariler seasons... He was never the same when they started showing "The Flinstones : The next generation"..." he said. Kryten walked into the qauters.

"Hi sirs, Dinner is served" Lister looked at kryten "Does the entire ships crew really need to be in my quaters? Im not even dressed yet. I wouldent mind a little privacy" Kryten proceeded to leave the quaters "i dont know, i cook dinner, obey orders 247 but i get no thanks" At that moment, Hollys pixelated face appeared on a large screen that was situated next to listers bed. "Ermegency, Theres an emerancy going on" he began to say in his boring, slow voice.  
"What is it this time hol?" Lister asked "Another one of rimmers underpants began emiting poiseness gas?" Holly shook his head "An astoid dave" he replied. The screen turned from hollys face onto a radar display showing a large object approaching the ship. Lister and Rimmer began to panic. Rimmer dived under the bed "Brace for impact!" he cried. "Im too young to die!" cried lister, rimmer looked at him "You werent saying that five minutes ago! Besides, your 3 million years old you modo..." The cat just stood still with a worried look on his face "You mean to tell me that astorid is gonna hit us?" Rimmer gave him an irritated look "No you fool, Its going to politly greet us and treat us to an chicken curry, of course its going to hit us. And kill us too". The cat looked very scared "Oh no, If that thing hits us, then i guess that means i can say goodbye to this crease-free suit!" Holly reapeared upon the screen "3 Minutes to impact, dave" He said. "Holly, is there any way that we can stop that thing. Shoot it down with lasers or somthing?" Holly gave him sarcastic look. "Dave, Its a mining ship. We dont have any lasers. 2 Minutes to impact and counting" Rimmer began to shake with fear. "So holly, any ideas? Is there anything we can do?" Lister sighed. "We could try steering the ship away from it, dave" Lister paniced "What? Do it, do it!" he shouted at holly " I cant dave, the ship is in manual pilot mode. 1 Minute to impact" Lister darted out of his quaters, still in only a towel, and proceeded to run towards the command deck. "Its too late, he'll never make it" rimmer cried. "Goodbye suits" cat said with a tear in his eye. "Fan-smegging-tastic" Rimmer stated, expecting it to be his last words...

The "red dwarf" ship was approaching its doom, a huge rocky astroid was on course for impact and there was nothing they could do. All of a sudden, a hole in slipstream opened up. Out poped a small rust-bucket of a ship, moving at pretty fast speed. On board this little ship were Trance, Beka and Harper. "Look at that!" Harper said, pointing at the "Red Dwarf". "What a heap of junk" he laughed "Their in trouble!" Trance shouted "Incoming astroid headed directly at them, 21 degrees to the south from there starboard" Beka did a hard turn and proceeded to charge at the astroid. "Ok, Open missile tubes 1 through 5" she requested. Trance beeped away at her moniter, "We have to hit the very center. Ok, targetiting" She pressed away at the controll pad, and the eureka maru fired its payload of missiles towards the astroid. The huge rock split into two, and both segments proceeded to skim past the "Red Dwarf" starship. "Hail them trance" asked beka, wiping the sweat of her forehead.

"Dave" holly said "We got an incoming message from a spaceship that just appeared out of nowear and saved us". Dave looked very suprised "What? How? When? Who?" Trance appeared up on the screen.

"Come in. Is there anyone on board?" she asked softly.

"Err, yes... Your... Not... Your an... Your..." lister replied scared. Having never met anouther race other than human, and a strong beliver that humans were the only life in the universe, lister was very confused by trance.

"Hello! Hey Beka, it looks like we have some humans on board" Trance said happily.

"Humans?" harper screamed with excitment, he pushed trance away from the camera "Hey! Another human! How are ya buddy?" harper asked in exitement. Trance pushed him back.

"Requesting permission to come aboard.. Mr..?" Trance asked, Lister was still very suprised

"Err, Lister... Dave lister. I will just, er, open up the hanger door". Rimmer walked in looking surpriesd.

"Whats the matter lister, Why arent we dead?" he moaned.

"We were saved.."

"By who?"

"A pretty, wierd alien woman. And an american in guy in a hawaien shirt" Rimmer smiled. "Aliens lister?" he said. Lister dident want to admit it. "Err, well. Yeah"

"HAH! I told you listy. I told you so! Aliens lister! I allways told you, i allways told you they existed did i not?" He braged, pointing his finger in the air. The Maru docked into red dwarfs main hanger, Harper and Trance climbed out of the ship. They were greeted by lister, rimmer and kryten, who came running into the hanger. "Greetings, fellow lifeforms" Kryten said.

"Hey, Not quite as realistic looking as rommie is he?" Harper smiled, laughing at krytens square head.

"Nice to meet you" Trance said to lister, he shook her hand. She proceeded to try and shake rimmers, but instead her hand went through him.

"Oh sorry, Hologram!" she smiled. Rimmer laughed back and whisperd in Listers ear "Bitch." Harper looked around at the ship.

"You guys are using pretty low-tech stuff here. How old is this ship?"

"Almost 3 million and 3 years old" Rimmer said. Harper laughed "Wow, An antique"

"Thanks for saving us back there" Lister said to trance. Beka was just starting to leave the maru. As soon as lister set eyes on her, he fell in love. Beka walked down towards where everyone was talking and noticed that lister was staring at her.

"Hey... er.. whoever you are" beka said, holding out her hand. Lister just continued to stare. He was lovestruck by beka.

"Lister you gimboid git... Nice to meet you miss?" rimmer interupted.

"Beka, Beka Valentine, This is Seamus Harper, and this is Trance Gemini"

"Nice to meet you miss valentine. I would shake your hand, but im a hologram"

"I suggest we leave the cold hanger, and proceed to the hospitality of our ships quaters. Perhaps we could enter the mess hall, and i could serve our new freinds a meal, we are after all, very gratefull that they saved our lives" Kryten said.

"Good idea kryten" Rimmer said. "so, If the lovely Beka, and her freinds Trance and Seamus would like to follow us..."

"Call me harper" harper moaned, "And yeah, i could do with a meal... You got any chicken?" Kryten nodded.

"You can stop staring a miss valentine now, mr lister sir" Kryten said to lister. He snapped himself out of it and followed as the party proceeded towards the mess hall.

"Ahh" harper sighed. He smelled the sweet odour of the chicken as his plate was plopped down in front of him by kryten. He picked up his knife and fork, and was just about to dig into the tender meat. "I havent had a roast chicken for a long time" He sighed. Trance was watching him from the opisate bench, smiling as he digged in to the food. Rimmer and Lister were sitting at a separate table talking to beka.

"So harper, what do you think about our hosts" trance asked. "Well, there human, there cool, and they got chicken, Kryten can cook real food. Unlike you trance"

"Excuse me, I can cook just fine, for your infomation" she said.

"What about you rimmer? Can you cook?" Lister asked with a smile on his face.

"Well, I" rimmer replied. Trance was laughing.

"Ill have you know, Mr Lister" Rimmer said "I was once on an episode of Ready Steady Cook".

Lister laughed. "I never understood why they brung back ainsly harriot as a hologram, He was annoying enough in the years he was alive."

Harper burped after consuming an entire chicken.

"Seamus elazney harper you pig!" trance said, slapping him on the shoulder. "What?" he replied. Lister did a huge burp, which caused both Beka and Harper to break into a fit of laughter. Trance sighed. "Hey, I like this guy" Harper said while laughing.

"I dont" Rimmer moaned.

"So, are our lovely guests going to stay here overnight?" Rimmer asked, looking at Beka.

"Yeah, why not" Harper replied.  
"There is enough spare rooms, 1490 to be precise" Lister said.

"What?" trance said shocked. "Is that how many crew you used to have? What happend to them all"

"Radiaition leak" said lister. "His fault" his eyes turned to Rimmer.

"Not exactly.. Well ok... It was a mistake. I failed to close the engine mainfold after vital repairs.."

"You killed the crew? All of them?" Harper said in shock.

"Well i dident plan it!" Rimmer said angrily. "Dont blame me"

"All that death!" trance said. "Because you forgot to close an engine manifold, You ourght to be extreamily ashamed of yoruself, Mr...er... tall!" She walked away, very upset. If there was one thing that trance really hated, it was when people lose there lives accidently.

"Shes just very caring" Harper said to Rimmer. "She gets very touchy about the whole death thing."

"Besides" Beka said "Bigger mistakes in the universe have been made..."

"Yai, Yai, Yai, Yah! Hahahaha!" Lister slapped harper hard on the back. "HAHAH! I bet you slept with Beka... 50 times!" He was laughing and cothing at the same time. Harper fell over and banged his head on the table. "Argh, Dam Table" harper shouted, pushing the table over in anger and then kicking it repeatitly. Harper and Lister fell on the floor, both dropping there beer bottles and laughing. Lister picked up a bottle with a blue label on"I hate the colour blue" he laughed and smashed it against the wall. Trance, who was wondering past in the corridoor, heard the smash and imediatly ran into the ships bar in which lister and harper were. "Harper? what are you up too?" she cried. She looked down at the two freinds rolling around on the floor like deranged pigs. Both looked up at her with dizzy eyes. Lister was trying to stand up, but failed mysribly.

"Hi babe" harper said "Hows those sexy legs of yours?" Lister smacked him on the back

"Get in there my son!" Lister shouted, in a drunken fasion. They both laughed. Trance rolled her eyes,

"You'll never find out" she said, and walked out sighing. Lister and harper just continued to drink into the early hours of the morning.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, A very hung-over harper came strolling into the command deck in which Rimmer was sitting looking at a radar screen. He was grasping his head and moaning in discomfort.

"Have a good time last night, did you harper?" Rimmer asked smugly.  
"Yeah, untill we began to be sick" he said. "Man my head hurts" Harper walked over and slumped himself into one of the command deck chairs.

"What you looking at?" he asked curiosly, noticing Rimmer was closely monitering a radar screen.

"Well, it appears we have company. Theres an object a few light minutes away. I dont know, you sit around for years waiting for alien contact and nothing... And then all of a sudden 2 come along at once!" Rimmer said, leaning back in his chair.

"Yeah well not all contacts are freindly. Belive me, i have came into contact with a lot of species in my time in space. A lot of which you would never want to meet" Harper said clenching his head. Beka had just woke up and was leaving her room, when lister came wondering around the corner. This was it, his chance to impress her.

"Hi" he said.

"Hey lister" Beka replied. She bagan to walk along side him.

"So, Harper tells me your a pilot" lister said.

"Yep, ever since i was a child. And im pretty good too"

"I allways wanted to be a pilot, but instead of flight school i ended up stuck in art college"

"Oh, So your an artist?"

"No, i just went there because its easier than other colleges. I never did have a good education"

"Oh.."

"I got 2 degrees mind, My BSC and SSC"

"Really? What do they stand for, if you dont mind me asking..."

"Bronze swimming certificate and Silver swimming certificate"

"Oh... So, i see you and harper seem to be getting on well"

"Yeah, after being stuck on a starship with Arnold Judas Rimmer for 6 years its great to finally meet someone who i dont wanna hurl all over.. But yeah, Harpers a great guy"

"And what do you think about trance?"

"Shes... Interesting. She seems a nice... Er person? Do you call her a person?"

"Yeah"

"Oh. Its weird you know. I allways thought id spend the rest of my life, stuck on bored with rimmer a stupid android and a cat.. But now ive met you... another human... And a very beautifull one if you dont mind me saying"

"What cat?"

"Huh? Oh, have you not met him yet?"

"No"

"Strange. Wonder where he is. When i say cat, i dont mean like a cat, i mean... the cat. Hes a little different to normal cats"

"Erm... Ok... Im gonna go take a shower so ill... see you around." Beka left and entered the shower room. Lister watched as she walked away from him. He really wanted her... he knew he had to try harder. After trying to get a peek of beka getting changed, lister stumbled his way to the mess hall.

"The object is now in visible range" Rimmer stated. Harper came strolling over to where he was sitting.

"Bring it up on the screen" Harper said, Rimmer tapped a few keys, and then to harpers horror, the object appeared on the screen. "Oh no. Please no." harper said in a scared voice. "No, The maggog are here. Oh no, Dylan aint here. Were screwed"

"What? What the smeg is a maggog? And who the smeg is this dylan? What are you driviling about" Rimmer was very confused.

"Look, That is a maggog ship." shouted harper, pointing at the moniter "Its full of angry aliens who like to eat people, oh and lay eggs inside your bodies. Oh wait, your a hologram so you dont have to worry about any of this do you" he watched as the pod approached "BEKA!" he screamed. The drop pod began to accelerate towards the "RedDwarf", and harper was getting more nervous by the second. Trance came running onto the command deck followed by lister

"Whats up, what is it?" Lister asked. He and trance were both out of breath.

"Look trance" Harper said pointing at the screen, she imediatly looked worried. Lister, confused, asked what was up.

"This is very bad" trance said to lister "These are called the maggog, they will attempt to boared the ship and eat us"

"This is gonna be a long day..." Lister said. That second, Beka ran onto the command deck

"Whats up guys?" She said. Suddenly, the screaching sound of a maggog pod beggining to breach the ships hull emerged from above. As soon as she heard it, her queston was answerd.

"Follow me" She cried to lister.

"Whats up, whats happening, where are we going" he replied. They began to run, making there way towards the Maru. "Were going to get some weapons. When the magog are aboard, we aint gonna be fighting them with out fists" she said. The magog pod began to drill its way into the outer hull of the "Red Dwarf". The drill-tip was rapidly apoaching the inner corridoors. At the command deck trance and harper were looking very worried. Rimmer was strolling around thinking.

"So you mean to tell me, the maggog are an angry race of aliens who eat people" Rimmer asked.

"Exactly" replied harper "And they got sharp teeth, sharp claws, and a huge apetite"

"So what your basicly saying is, Were galloping up diarea drive without a saddle?"

"I guess you could put it like that"

"Oh Smeg!" Rimmer suddenly paused "Theres more of those pods appearing on the radar" Sure enough, five more maggog pods were closing in on the "Red Dwarf".

"Arnold" Holly said as he appeared onto the screen "There are 5 small ships trying to penetrate our hull. I dont know how long it will be before they punture the outsides of the ship and manage to get aboard"

"Run!" Beka screamed at lister. He found it hard to keep up with her as she ran towards the maru. They both darted into the hanger, and ran as fast as they could untill they were onboard the maru. Once inside, Beka went straight for the guns cabinet.

"You know how to use a blaster right?" Beka said, opening up the gun cabin.

"Well, How hard can it be?" lister said, as he cought the gun that she through at him. She clipped 2 spare pistols onto her belt, and then they both proceeded to run back out of the maru and through the hangar bay. As they were leaving the Hangar Bay doors, lister noticed the ceiling begin to creak.

"Stop!" he cried, grabbing onto Bekas arm. "Look" he pointed up at the roof of the coridoor, and then the metal above them began to buckle and crumble. Both pulled out there handguns and aimed them at the ceiling that was starting to give way, and slowly walked backwards.  
"Get ready to shoot" Beka whisperd to Lister. They stood, guns aimed, waiting for the maggog to drop in from above.

On the command deck, Harper, Trance and Rimmer were still waiting. They had borded up the door with metal planks, in an attempt to hold back the maggog if they were to drop into the corridoor on the otherside. They heard a huge creak, felt a large rumble, and the room began to fill with dust and sparks. All the lights in the room began to flicker on and off, and the creaks began to get louder and louder. Trance knew that harpers worst fear, the maggog, were getting closer by the minute. She put her arms around him, in an attempt to comfort him. All of a sudden, the room began to shake dramaticly, and all three freinds turned to see the ceiling begin to collapse at the far side of the command deck. A few seconds later, Hungry maggog began to pour in through the newly created hole. The entering maggog insantly charged towards harper and trance, who both sqealed and retreated back towards the door. Harper picked up a peice of twisted pipe, to use as a weapon. The growling maggog began to charge at the 3, with there claws scraping the air. Harper was defending trance from attack by swinging his trusty peice of pipe like a sword, smacking the maggog and knocking them off their feet. A handfull of maggog were trying to scratch rimmer, but were simply falling through him. Trance was backed up behind a wall, firing her force lance, as harper furiously swung for the approaching maggog.

"Come on Harper, Rimmer, we have got to get out of here" Trance said. She turned and began trying to take the barrior off the door.

"Whos idea was it to bord up the door again?" Harper shouted sarcasticly, after knocking a maggog onto the ground.

"Umm...Rimmers."Trance replied.

"Excuse me, if i remeber correctly, it was yours...Mrs Gemini."Rimmer replied,his hands behind his back, he was allways up for a argument.He was just about to brag about something-

"Oh, shut up, and do me a favor..dont start lecturing me about how brilliant you life has been...AND kille these things!"Trance shouted to him, after shooting about 3 magog with her force lance.

"Ok,umm guys, can we stop now...guys...GUYS?"Harper shouted, looking around.After knocking a magog of its feet,Trance ran up to him,she was scared aswell,obviously, she took his hand and ran to the door and started shoot at it with her force lance.A magog jumped down from the ceiling infront of her,making he scream, she jumped back and dropped the force lance to the floor.

"Oh crap!"Harper said as Trance dropped to the floor, she was still holding his hand,Harper kneeled next to her as the magog rounded on them,walking through Rimmer.

"Excuse me!Have you no respect for the dead!"Rimmer shouted after them and walked through them all, as they tried to attack him.

"Well be dead soon too if you cant help us get rid of these things!" Trance shouted. "Now are you going to help us or not you ignorant pig?" Harper seemed surprised at Trances unatural aggresion. He grabbed her by the hand and helped her up. That second, a maggog jumped at trance and ripped away at her stomach. She cried in pain, then fell to the floor clenching her belly. The maggog had clawed her deep, and she began to bleed pretty bad. When harper saw how severe the scratch was, he just lost his temper and began charge at the maggog without thinking. By this time, Rimmer was hiding underneath a computer desk with his head in between his hands, crying like a coward. Harper bravely defended trance, who was lying on the ground in agony, the fight was not over yet...

"Open fire, open fire!" Beka cried. Lister and Beka began to furiously gun at the maggog as they fell in from above. They were managing to take out a significant number, but the magogg were swarming in so fast that the odds were not looking good. The evil creatures snarled as they landed on their feet, and stroked the air angrily as soon as they set eyes on Lister and Beka. The pair backed up against the wall, shooting radamonly at the swarm of maggog as they did so. Listers shooting ability was a little rusty, so many of his shots ended up completly missing the maggog and hitting the walls and ceiling. The corridoor they were in was being flooded with the sounds of pain as the maggog continued to be taken out.

"Its no use!" Lister cried amidst all the gunshots. "THeres too many!"

"Belive me, ive faced a lot more" Beka shouted back "And try and aim for the head!" The pair continued to shoot, and then realised they had to retreat. They ran backwards, still firing there weapon, untill they came to the corner of a T junction coridoor. They used the wall for cover and continued to fire at the maggog. By now, Listers aim was begining to improve.

"Your getting pretty good at this action hero stuff" Beka laughed to Lister. The maggog continued to flow from the hole in the ceiling. All of a sudden, Harpers voice began to echo around the corridoors.  
"Boss, Boss are you alive... We could use a little help here! Were up on the command deck... Trance has been hit... Save us boss!" Harper cried in a scared voice over the intercom system. They could hear the sounds of combat taking place behind him.

"We gotta get to them!" Beka cried. "Come on lister, Is there any other way to the command deck other than the way we got here?"

"No" Lister replied while shooting a maggog in the face "Unless... Yeah.. Follow me" Beka ran after lister as the retreated away from the swarms of maggog, and towards the Mess Hall. As they entered, Beka looked confused.

"What? Were not hungry lister. We dont need food?" she said. Listers plan was simple. He knew from his duties as the ships kitchen cleaner,that there was a food delivery system that ran up all of the main decks. A small electronic elevator, in which the chef could place his food on, in order to lift the meal to the decks located above the Mess Hall. Lister happened to know that a food drop-off point was located at the command deck.

"So, We climb up the ropes that lift the elevator up?" Beka asked as lister began to squeese through into the tiny elevator shaft. It was barely able to fit 2 people side by side, and had a very weak-looking rope running through. Below them was a huge drop, and above them seemed to go into the distance forever.

"Yeah its that simple. And dont look down" He said. Lister and beka grabbed onto the ropes, and began to climb. In the distance they could here sounds of combat taking place above them, as the sounds echoed around the tiny lift-shaft.

Trance lay on the floor moaning in pain, while Rimmer lay crying cowerdly in the corner. Harper continued to take out the maggog using a combination of his trusty pipe, and trances force lance. He was pushing the maggog back to the far wall, and was laying into them with heavy fire.

"Thats for trance. THats for dylan, And thats for me!" He cried, teeth gritted, as he dropped the maggog one by one. He kicked on of the attacking maggog back into the food elevator opening. The maggog began to fall down the shaft.

"Incoming!" Lister screamed, Both he and Beka thrusted themselves against the wall as close as they could get, and the falling maggog skimmed past them, coming with inches of them loosing there grip. Beka sighed in releif as the falling maggog disapeared into the distance below them.

"Come on" she said "We gotta get up there" The pair began climbing again.

Harper watched as even more maggog began to swarm onto the command deck. He aimed his force lance... But nothing.

"Oh crap what a time to run out of ammo!" He cried to trance. More maggog entered, and before he knew it he was being overun. At least 6 of them were attacking him at once. "Its no use" he said in dismay when he realised he was fighting an un-winnable battle. That second, he was scratched across the face. In pain he dropped to the floor, and there he lay next to a very faint looking trance.

"Im... Sorry trance" He whispered. "Beka, i guess shes dead"

"Harper..." trance said, stoking his face gently with her hand "Thanks for trying... You did good" she smiled at him.

"Were maggog food trance... And i just wanted to say that..." His speech was interupted by the sound of gunshots. Beka and Lister dived out of the Food Shaft and imediatly began to rain fire upon the attacking maggog. Their fire pushed the maggog back from harper and trance, and after a short gunfight, the maggog were begining to die down. As the last few magog entered the room, Hollys face appeared on the screen.

"The other 3 remainging maggog pod ships just left our hull, Looks like there retreating thanks to your handy work mrs valentine" Harper, even though he was in pain, put on his sarcastic voice and said "Hey look, little maggogys running home to their mommys" and laughed. Beka and Lister sighed in releif. Lister wiped the sweat of his face and held his head in his hand.

"Well theres never a dull moment with you around" He said to Beka while she inspected trances wound and tried to comfort her. "Hey Kryten" he said over the intercom "Get your metal arse up here, We got casualities". That second, Rimmer emerged from behind the desk.

"See lister, If you dont panic, if you stay calm, fight for your life, you will succeed every time" He said with a smug grin.

"What?" Harper shouted "You just cowerdly hid behind the desk the whole time. Besides your a hologram, You cant feel pain, heck you cant even get a scratch"

"Ooh, Mrs gemini, thats a pretty bad cut you got there" Rimmer said in an attempt to change the subject. "Not as bad as the one i had back in 23 though, aye lister?"

"What you mean the time you got that splinter from A deck" Lister said laughing, He and Beka lifted up harper

"Can you walk?" Lister asked.  
"Yeah, Im fine. Its just a scratch" He said holding onto his face "A painfull scratch"

"But we better check it for infections, KRYTEN!" lister shouted. The square headed android entered the room.

"Yes sir? I was just recharing my batteries sir, what is it that sir commands of me sir?" Kryten said with his innocent voice.

"Take these two down the medical bay, But be carefull when you move trance, shes got a very painfull cut on her belly"

"Ahh, I see sirs. Ill have you patched up in no time madame" Trance could only manage a moan. Kryten walked over to trance and picked her up.  
"Hang in there babe" Harper said to trance, patting her on the shoulder. Harper looked at the floor in a frown, he felt upset for Trance and a little guilty that he never managed to protect her. Lister patted him on the arm

"Dont worry man, Kryten will fix her up" He said in an attempt to comfort him. Harper dident reply, and lister left the room.

Lister was walking down the ships long coridoors, thinking about Beka. He paused for a second, and began to practice his lines.

"So Beka" he said to himself "Ive been meaning to tell you... I like you" he shook his head. "No, no..." he frowned "Hey Beka, I want you... No" he said. He just shook his head and continued to walk on. Rimmer came around the corner smiling.

"Lister you smeg head. You havent got a chance with that Beka girl" he said while laughing. Lister just ignored him and walked through him.

"Have you no respect lister? How dare you walk through me. Im talking to you mister!" Lister disapeared into another coridoor. "What are you laughing at, You stupid electronic goit" He said to a scutter who was sweeping the floor next to him.

"Dave, Dave..." Hollys voice began to echo around the ship as his pixelated face appeared on one of the overhead screens "I am detecting another one of those...er... slip...stream thingys. South of the port hull". Lister paused in shock.

"Oh, Its not more maggog is it?" He asked in fear.

"I dont know dave" Holly replied.

"Well find out!" He shouted.

"Do i detect a little anger listy?" Rimmer said while walking around the corner. Harper came running down towards them.

"Its not maggog, Its the andromeda!" He cried, out of breath.

"Whats the Andromeda?" Lister asked. Beka, Harper and Trance had kept the andromeda secret, so it was the first he had heard of it. Confused, he watched as Harper pulled out his handheld visual comunicator. Rommie appeared on the little screen.

"Harper? Is that you?" She asked.

"Rommie! Boy am i glad to see you" Harper replied in glee. Rimmer and Lister stood and watched in confusion.

"Harper... Your not on that rust bucket of an earth mining ship are you?" Rommie said pulling her surprised face. Rommies face suddenly turned into dylans.

"Mr harper, Is Beka with you? And wheres trance. What happend to the Maru? We detected maggog in this system. Are you ok?" Dylan asked.

"Whos he?" Lister asked in even more confusion. Haper held up his hand.

"Hey boss" he said into his communicater "This is Dave Lister. And hes Arnold Rimmer. And yeah, Bekas fine. Trance is here... But she... She got hit."

"What? Jesus christ harper i cant trust you to do anything right" Dylan said in anger.

"Trance... She should be ok" Harper said trying to convince Dylan that he hadent let him down.

"Err... Yeah" Lister butted in, backing up Harper "She only got a scratch to the stomache"

"What? The maggog were there?" Dylan asked in surprise. "And you survived the attack?"

"Yeah boss, it wasent easy but we held our ground. Besides Dave here was the real hero." Harper said patting lister on the shoulder "Oh and Beka".

"Im proud of you soldiger" Dylan said with a smile "I need you guys back, Harper, Were on a dangerous mission. Ill breif you soon. Were coming aboard, Get ready to let two of our slipfighters dock in your hangar. Hunt out.".


	3. Chapter 3

Beka held trances hand, while Kryten rubbed a disinfectant liquad into her wound. Trance was crying in pain.  
"Hang in there trance" Beka said, she was trying to comfort her but felt worried for her life.  
"Remind me never to get scratched by the maggog OWCH... Again" Trance said.  
"Youve been spending too much time with harper" beka smiled "I think his sense of humour is starting to rub off on you"

"I just hope i ...AHRG!... Oooh...I Get to spend more time with him after today..." She moaned. The disinfectant that Kryten was rubbing in to her wounds was very painfull. Lister and harper walked into the medic room. Too bekas complete surprise, Dylan and Rommie followed them in. As soon as Rommie saw trance she ran over to where she was lying.

"Trance, Trance? Can you hear me?" Rommie asked, patting her on the side of her face. Trance turned to her and squeled in pain.

"How'ed you... Huh? What are you doing here?" Beka said in confusement. The last she had heard, they did not know where dylan was, now he was suddenly on the "Red Dwarf".

"Andromedas drifting outside, We came aboard with slip fighters" Dylan said "Is she, err... Is she going to be ok?" He looked over to trance.

"She should be fine sirs" Kryten said while wrapping a peice of cloth around an in-pain trance's stomache. Rommie was helping by lifting her back up from the bed.

"Yeah boss, You know trance, shes tougher than she looks" Harper said.

"She certainly is" Dylan said calmly.  
"Now sirs, I think it would be kind if we left Trance to rest on her own. She needs her sleep." Kryten suggested. He gave her an injection. "This injection should help her to rest, just give it a few minutes." Dylan, Lister, Rommie and Beka nodded, and followed Kryten to the door. Harper stood still and looked at Trance. He wanted to comfort her.

"Harper?" Dylan said.  
"Just a minute boss.. Lemmie just say goodnight to trance" Dylan nodded and the party left the room.

"Trance... Can you here me?" Trance just lay there with her eyes closed.  
"I... I really like you Trance" he said. Dylan popped his head around the corner of the door.

"Harper?" He said. Harper nodded then walked towards the door, Dylan patted him on the shoulder as they left the room.

"I like you too harper... a lot" Trance whispered faintly to herself after she made sure he had left the room. She closed her eyes and drifted away...

Beka, Lister, Dylan, Rommie, Harper and Kryten were walking away from the medical bay together.

"Im afraid its not looking good sirs" Kryten said with a worried expression.

"What? I thought you said she would be fine!" Harper shouted in confusement.

"Well, Sir, I said it in an attempt to comfort her. Why, its rule number 101 of the android medic rulebook, "A medic android should never tell a living being that their condition is fatal. It is one of the few instances in which an android is allowed to enter Lie mode."

"Sometimes, lieing can be noble" Lister said with a sigh. Dylan stared at the floor, thinking of Trance.

"So... What are the chances of her surviving?" He asked Kryten.

"Well sir, the cut was extreamily deep. In fact, in all my years as a medical android, i have never seen a being survive an injury of such calibire. To make matters worse, Sirs, Trance has got an infection that will only get worse.. I have never encounted those maggog creatures before, so i have no treatment that will help fix her. The best we can do is hope." Krtyen said with a worried face. Harper thought about it for a second. He couldent quite get his head around the fact Trance may be dying, then he began to cry gently. Beka put his arms around him, and hugged him as dylan, Rommie and lister left to give them some privacy.

"This is an... Interesting ship" Dylan said to lister as they were continueing down the corridor with Rommie by his side. He was looking around the rusty old corridoors and tatty walls.

"Well it was hardly the queen mary to begin with" Lister replied "This place has allways been a peice of junk, ok a LARGE peice of junk"

"I hope Trance is ok" Dylan sighed.

"Yeah, me too" Lister said staring straight ahead "Poor harper will be crushed. Hes really close to her"

"She and Harper, They... Theyve been through a lot. A hell of a lot" Dylan said, thinking about how long they have known each other.

"Shes so beutifull" Rommie said sighing. "And shes such a kind person, She does not deserve to die considering how much bad there is in the universe."

"Trance... She seems so strange to me" Lister said.

"Why?" Dylan said. Lister went on to explain how he had only ever met humans before, and never knew of life outside of earth.

"Belive me lister, Theres a lot of life out there. But trance is one of the most facinating beings ive ever met" Dylan explained. Lister paused.  
"Dont you think, THough, That... that Trance looks a little.. Human like?" He said.

"Huh?" Dylan said in confusement.

"I mean.. I guess i mean, I expected that if there was Life out there, they would be nothing like humans. You know, like huge slimy bugs or somthing... Or beutifull alien whoman with 6 breasts" Dylan laughed.

"Lister, Life is very different. It differs greatly around the universe. You.. You met the maggog right? As you can see, they look pretty unhuman like. And yes, You do get huge slimy bug like creatures. And yes, I have also met a few alien whoman with 6 breasts" Dylan smiled. Lister paused for a second. He thought breifly about the prospect of making love to a 6 breasted woman.

"Maybe... Maybe you should introduce me to one of these... 6 breasted woman" he said, quickly changing the subject "Anyway, we better get to the... er... follow me" he said.

Harper slept in the medic room that night, he was slumping over in an uncomftable looking sitting position, resting his head on Trances bed. Throughout the night he woke up every now and then to the sounds of crying from an in-pain trance. The next morning, He was awoken for good by Beka who entered the room. She shook him in an attempt to wake him up.

"Alright, Alright im awake.. Im awake!" Harper cried.

"Hey Harp, Dylan wants us in his quaters. He needs us on some mission, You... err.. up for it?" Beka asked.

"What about Trance?" He asked. Beka dident reply, and just left the room frowning. That instant trance jerked up in a split second, into a sitting position. She was breathing heavily and puffing and panting.

"Harper!" She screamed. She fell backwards in pain, clentching onto her belly.

"Trance!" Harper paniced "Trance! Are you ok? Whats up!" She opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Oh... Harper.. I ... Your here? What? Where am I... Huh?" Trance was moaning in confusion. "I .. Must have had a bad dream... i think i dreamt that... Harper, Am i going to be ok? My stomach really hurts and now my head... it throbs"

"I... I dont know Trance" Harper said with a tear in his eye, frowning. He grabbed trances hand and began to squeese it.

"Harper? What do you mean you dont know... Im gonna be ok arent I? Harper!" She paniced. "Trance... The scratch... Its infected" Harper sighed. Trance began to sob, Harper leant over and kissed her on the cheek, then left the room to make his way towards the breifing.

"And i recieved the distress signal about 0600 hours yestaday" Rommie expained to Lister, Rimmer, Dylan, Beka and Kryten. Harper walked in, and sat down to listen to the mission breafing.

"The planet the distress signal came from appears to be located in the Gemini star system" Dylan told the crew. "Rommie, If you will". Rommie nodded and pressed a button on her handheld console. A little holographic figure appeared and began to play a message.

"Come in any close-by high gaurd ships, I repeat come in any high gaurd ships. We are under attack. I repeat we are underattack. The enemy forces have attacked our research outpost. We have enemys coming in from all directions. The artifact that we recently recovered from this planet has been locked safely in the pantry, but we cannot allow it to get into the enmies hands! Over." The message play ended. The crew looked around at each other, then a at dylan.

"Whats this artifact boss?" Harper asked. Dylan replied,

"Nobody knows. They discovered it a few months ago at the mining outpost he mentioned. The outpost was located in the gemini system, on the planet called Helgar 4, Nobody could determain what it was. It is an object of great value but.."  
"... Hey, wasent that the object that they said was priceless?" Beka interuppted. Dylan nodded.

"Which is probably why whoever these guys were wanted it in the first place" Kryten said.

"The artifact is extreamily strange, nothing like it had ever been found in the universe before" Rommie said "It may be some kind of superweapon for all we know.."

"..Which is the reason why the commanwealth have asked us to get it back" dlyan continued. "We dont know what kind of power it holds". Rimmer stood up.

"Its probably some kind of smegging religious mumbo jumbo. Its probably just a ancheint condom or somthing" He said. Beka and harper laughed. "Why should we risk our lives to save some smegging object!" Rimmer said. Dylan looked at the rest of the crew.

"We risk our lives because its our mission" he sighed "Whos up to it? Anybody who wants to pull out can stay her on the redwarf" All of the crew nodded, excepted Rimmer who shook his head.

"No, No, No, No, No" Rimmer moaned. "No. im not going". Dylan laughed "Well you could just stay here on the red dwarf" he said. Lister put his hand up.

"Yes mr lister sir?" Dylan said.

"Permission for me and kryten to join the andromeda crew sir?" He asked.

"Welcome aboared" Dylan said. The rest of the crew smiled, apart from Harper who was too busy thinking about Trance.

The cat popped out of the air vent. He did a quick roll and then stood up and danced around singing.

He popped his head into the medical bay and then noticed Trance lying there "Ohh, Yeah!" He sang as he apporached Trance. Trance coughed. She was extreamily surprised when she saw the cat approaching, as she had not yet been introduced to him.

"Hi" She said faintly. The cat, who gets distracted easily, noticed some scalpels and various other medical tools on the desk next to trances bed. He picked them up and proceeded to play with them.

"I dont think you should play with those" she whispered. The cat picked up one of the sryinges, and began to inspect it. He pricked his finger with it, and squealed in pain.

"I feel... Kinda" he said as the sleeping sryinge began to take effect "Kinda... Faint..." He fell over into a deep sleep. Lister walked into the Medical room.

"Huh? Oh, I see youve met the Cat. Sleeping srynge?" He asked. Trance nodded, and Lister went over to the cat and took the srynge out of his hand. "How you feeling?" He said.

"Not good" said trance. "My stomache still really hurts and my head feels like its been ran over by a bus" Lister nodded as harper walked in with Kryten.

"Hey trance, Glad to see that your awake." Harper said. "Were... Er going on a mission... and... er..."

"I think what Mr Harper is trying to say, Miss Gemini, Is that we are going to have to move you. We need to take you from the red dwarf to the andromeda"

"Yeah, And its probably going to hurt" Harper told her. Trance sighed.

"Thanks Harper, tell her like it is why dont ya!" Lister said.

Kryten and Lister each grabbed an end of trance, and on the count of three lifted her up onto a stretcher. She squinted in pain as they did so.

"My god, Your light" Lister commented while transfering her from the bed to the stretcher.  
"Hey I allways did say she had a fabulas figure" Harper joked. Trance looked at him and smiled. Harper thought about how adorable she looked when she smiled, and then remembered what kryten had said ;"The infection can only get worse". His smile turned to a look of sadness.

"Be carefull" Harper said. "You drop her, I drop you" Lister nodded. Harper watched as they carried her out of the room.

After he had helped get trance aboard the andromeda via the maru, Lister went to see Rimmer before he left with the Andromeda crew for his first mission. He entered Rimmers quaters. Rimmer was lying on his bed.

"Rimmer... Ill be going soon" He said. "I just thought that, Y'know... Since ive spent.. what it is it? 5... No 6 years with you now... I just thought id say... goodbye. Since your staying i mean. Kryten told me to say bye to you too"

"Listy, Listy, Listy. I never thought it would sadden me to see you go. And guess what, It doesent" Rimmer replied.

"Rimmer you could at least say goodbye" Lister said in a sarcastic voice.

"Ok, goodbye" Rimmer said quickly, without even looking at lister.  
"Bye Rimmer"

"Wait... Wait.. Please dont go listy." Rimer said sitting up and looking at lister "I need someone to annoy. Its my job, My duty. besides, Who will keep me sane? Are you really saying that you would rather explore the universe in a state of the art spaceship, spending time with a sexy woman, a stupid bum-chinned fancy-pants-starship captain, a golden alien beuty, and a cute android? Wouldent you rather spend time with me listy. Me. Rimmer! Arnold J Rimmer. Your freind, Your only true pal"

"No Rimmer, I wouldent." Lister replied sarcasticly. "Now i have finally met some other people in the universe, i have no reason to stay aboared this peice of junk. Besides, In a few years ill be married to Beka and ill have kids of my own. While you, you will still be stuck on this ship, wasting your holographic years untill holly dies and you are removed from existance"

"What am i going to do? Read a book? Play hide and seek with myself? Eye Spy? That'll really help the milleniums fly-by"

"Get holly to turn you off..."

"And be deleted? Be removed from existance? This ship will be nothing without me..."

"Its nothing with you Rimmer, It wont make any difference"

"Oh Lister, What about the cat?"

"The cat... Oh he can stay here. I doubt dylan will want him getting in the way on board the andromeda"

"Oh no he wont Listy, Oh no he wont. I mean, Heck listy, I hate the cat. I cant stand his stupid face, his stupid voice and his stupider looks"

"Sorry rimmer, the cat cant come on boared andromeda"

"But..." Rimmer said.

"Goodbye holly" lister interupted.

"See ya dave" holly replied.

Lister left the room. Rimmer just stared at the floor, Thinking about the bordom that lay ahead.

The Eurika Maru, Fully loaded with supplies from red dwarf and 2 new crew members, Took off from Red Dwarf for the last time.

"Good bye ol dwarf" Lister said as he looked out the back window of the Maru, watching the Red Dwarf getting smaller into the distance as they aproached the Andromeda.

"I shall miss it so sir" Kryten commented "I shall miss its rust-bucket qualities, its blocked up drains and the way that the ships doors made that cute little "bleep" when you walked through them". Harper laughed

"Wait untill you see Andromeda, Its as luxourious as the Titanic... Exept the andromedas is built a little better" Beka accelerated the Maru untill it was inline with the andromeds landing bay and then flew in towards it.

"Your a pretty good pilot" Lister remarked after seeing how skillfully she landed the ship in the bay.  
"I know" Beka said, taking off her seatbelt. The crew left the Maru. Lister and Kryten followed, carrying the supplies that they had taken from the Red Dwarf.

"Where should we put these?" Lister asked harper. Harper proceeded to show them the way too the cargo deck. Beka and Dylan left the Marus bay, and were walking with each other towards the bridge.

"So, Dylan, What do you think of our new crew members?" Beka asked with a smile.

"They seem... great. Kryten seems to be pretty good at following orders, and Lister seems a nice bloke. Im sure they will do the commonwealth proud"

"Lister has the Hots for me" Beka said. She wanted to see if Dylan would react in a jealous mannor.

"So i see" dylan said laughing. They both paused. "And why the hell not?" He walked off towards the bridge. Beka smiled to herself, and then decided to visit the medical bay to see how Trance was coping.

Harper was helping Lister lift the heavy supply crates onto the stacks of supplys that were in the room in the storage bay. Over the last few days, Harper and Beka had been telling Lister and Rimmer all about the comonwealth and how it was formed.

"Whats the date today then?" Lister asked.

"Err... CY1287" Harper replied. "Thats in the commonwealth calender"

"How about, Err... In earths calender" Lister asked. After being on boared the Red Dwarf for 3 million years he had completly lost track of the date, or year.

"Its... lemmie work it out" Harper said converting the commonwealth date into earth calender "Umm... 13th Febuary... in the 3 thousandth and sixth millenium AD." Lister was surprised.

"So, I take it you were born on earth... What... er... Whats it like now?" Lister asked. Harper told him of how the maggog had attacked earth and killed millions, And how the drago katzoff neizchians had enslaved the earths population.

"Not good then" Lister replied. Harper shook his head and they both plonked down the last crate.

Dylans voice began to echo around the ship "Report to the bridge" he said. Lister and Harper began to run.

On the bridge, The full crew (apart from trance) were lined up. Dylan was standing, looking out of the main view window. Lister and Kryten appeared on the deck, they took there stand in between Rommie and Harper. Dylan bagan a crew check.

"Beka?" he said.

"Check" she replied.

"Harper?"

"Check" he said. Dylan went on untill the entire crew had been checked.

"Rommie, Open a slip portal" Dylan asked.

"Aye Aye" Rommie replied, tapping away at her moniter. In front of the andromeda, Space tore apart and a slip portal emerged fromt the darkness.

"Hey lister, Get one last look at Red Dwarf, its the last your gonna see of her" Beka told him.

"Lets go find that artifact" Dylan said heroicly, And with that the Andromeda shot off into the slip-stream portal which closed behind them. The journey had just begun.


	4. Chapter 4

Harper walked into the Medical Bay aboared the andromeda. Kryten was running scans on Trance, who was still lying there in pain. She had her eyes closed and looked very uncomftable. Kryten had plugged her into the andromedas life support machines and she had wires and tubes connected to various parts of her body.

"Hows she doing?" Harper asked.

"She is looking quite stable, But the infection is still at large. I am afraid, Mr harper, that i do not understand the infection, therefor i cannot create an antidote. I am realy sorry, but i think it is no longer a matter of will she live but more of a matter of how long will she live for" Kryten replied sadly. "I am terribly sorry Mr Harper, I understand that you and miss gemeni were very close. But i dont think there is anything that i can do..." Harper began to cry, and crouched down next to trances bed. Kryten left the room out of respect. Trance turned her head towards harper and slowly opened her eyes, and began too smile at him.

"Trance... Did i wake you? I am so sorry" Harper said, with tears in his eyes.

"Its fine, Really harper. Dont be sad. Please, Dont be sad for me." She croaked in a faint voice.

"But trance.. I... Trance, You..." Trance slowly lifted her finger and put it over Harpers lips.  
"Shhhh" she hushed.  
"Oh Trance, I made this for you" Harper said. He reached down and pulled out a card, with hearts all over it. He handed it over to Trance, Who slowly lifted it up and began to read the front cover.

"Happy Valentines Day...?" she read out loud in confusion "Wow, Look at all the red hearts. There so pretty" Harper smiled at her.

"Like you trance, They are very pretty just like you. And do you know what this card is for?" He asked. Trance shook her head.  
"I dont know, But its very nice. Thank you harper" Harper smiled.

"It means i want you to be my valentine Trance" he smiled. She looked at him in confusion.

"You want me to be your beka?" She said. Harper laughed.

"No, Oh it doesent matter. Im glad you like it anyway" He said. "Oh and i got you a valentines gift too" He pulled out one of his teddybears, and handed it to her.  
"For you" he said.

"Oh harper, This is your favorite teddy. I cant accept this" She replied. Harper ignored her and gave her a kiss on the cheek, then sat back down beside her. "Whats going on then, Where are we going Harper" Trance asked. Harper explained about the mission they were on, He told her about the artifact that they were searching for and where it was based.

"At the moment were just floating to the next slipstream point, When we get there we'll be just a few days from the planet that this object is located on, Helgar 4" He explained. Trance jolted in pain, then closed her eyes and fell asleep. Harper rested the teddy bear down next to her head, and then left the room frowning.

Rommie stood at her panel on the command deck and tapped away at the buttons. She turned towards dylan.

"Dylan im detecting somthing... Its a small escape pod a few light minutes out"  
"On screen" Dylan demanded. Rommie brought the visual view off the small craft onto the main screen.

"Its an eagle mark AF:143, the same escape craft used by commonwealth planet-based research outposts" Rommie said. Dylan thought for a second, then ordered Rommie to hail the tiny craft. Rommie tapped away at her console, and then the pilot of the escape pod bleeped up onto the main screen.  
"This is captain Dylan Hunt of the high gaurd warship Andromeda. Please confirm your identity" The man on the screen smiled. He was a mid-20s neezcheian. He had a scruffy haircut and looked dirty and unshaven. He was skinny looking, and was wearing the standerd commonwealth labcoat.

"Good to see you captain! I was hoping that one of you guys would be in the vercinity" he replied. "My name is Hellogaurn Arad, freinds call me Hell. Commonwealth number 8943:RO4. Part of Research Outpost 4 on Helgar 4" Rommie bleeped away at her console, accesing the Commonwealth database.

"Dylan, Identity confirmed. Hellogaurn Arad was a research scientist working at RO4. He graduated from Galileyo at the age of 16 from where on he..."

"Thats enougth rommie..." Dylan interupted holding up his hand "As long as he belongs to the commonwealth thats just fine" he laughed.  
"Commander hunt, Permision to come aboard sir" Hell asked over the visual intercom.

"Permision Granted, Hunt out" Dylan stepped down from the command position and made his way towards the docking bay. Beka was about too follow him when Lister came running up to her. He was puffing and panting and was holding a home-made card in his hand. The card was covered in hand drawn love hearts and had the words "Be My Valentine, Valentine" Scribbled on in poor handwritting.

"Wait!" Lister cried to beka. "Here you go". He handed her the card, she proceeded to read it.

"Dear Beka, Be my valentine, Ive loved since we did first meet. I want to take you too the sheets... Err... thanks lister, thats very... err... sweet. I guess..." Beka read aloud. Lister smiled at her.

"I came up with the ryhme myself. Dont you like it?" Beka laughed.

"You certainly have a way with words" she said, trying not to laugh at the pathetic attempt of a valentine card. She left the command deck and cought up with dylan who was on his way to meet Hellogaurn.

The small lifepod landed in the bay, and Hellogaurn stepped out to be greeted by Dylan and Beka.

"For a while there i thought i was a gonna! Phew" Hell said wiping the sweat of his forehead. "I was being pursuied by two genite ships, i managed to shake them off and enter slip-stream, which is how i found you guys" Dylan looked confused.

"It was the genites? The genites are the ones stealing the artifact?" He asked. Hell nodded.

"What ever that object is, they want it pretty bad" Beka said. Dylan patted Hell on the arm.

"Follow me, You can tell me what happened" he said, and the three left the docking bay.

"This research post on Helgar 4... what exactly was it you were doing there?" Beka asked as the three walked through andromedas corridoors.

"It was top secret. Im afraid i am not classified to tell you. The commonwealth law states that we cant" Hell replied rubbing his neck "Sorry". Dylan looked a little irritated.

"Excuse me, Mr Helloguarn, But while you are on boared my ship... You will follow my orders. Now, Tell me what you guys were doing down there" Dylan demanded.

"Im sorry captain, I dont have the clearance to give you that information. I really am not at libetery to say" Hell replied.

"Ok.. Ok... So this, Artifact. I guess it has nothing to do with... what ever it was you were doing down there? Because news of that object spreaded like wildfire" Beka interupted. The three entered the command deck in which rommie was standing looking at star maps.

"Yeah thats right. We were mining resources for our research.. and one day we came across it. It was burried deep within Helgar 4s surface. It took our longest drill tip to actually get to it." Hell replied

"And noone who looked at the object had a clue what it was" Dylan sighed. "Great, just great... Were on a mission to rescue and unkown artifact from a base that deals with unkown research"

"The object... It was beutifull" Hell said. "It was one of the most equisate peice of engeneering i have ever seen. And the fact that it was so ancheint makes it all the more amazing"

"Do we know ANYthing about it? Anything at all?" Dylan said.

"I know what it looks like, But thats all... Oh and it had the words "The Heart Of Gemini" inscribed on it in ancheint tounge. Acording to a language expert, anyway"

Dylan turned to Rommie.

"Rommie, Where about is Helgar 4 located in the Gemini Star System?" Rommie bagan to study the star map.

"Helgar 4 is a rather large planet in orbit around the center star of the gemeni system, the very center star in fact. The star known as Gemini " Rommie replied.

"The Heart Of Gemini indeed" Dylan whispered to himself in deep thought. He turned to Hell.

"Hell, You are going to have to acompany us on our mission to Helgar 4. We need a guide. Is the artifact still locked in the pantry?" Dylan asked.

"No, When i got to the escape pods i heard the genites talking. They were talking in common tounge, about how they were going to get a huge sum of credits for the artifact"

"Just as i thought" Dylan said. "They plan to sell the heart on the black market."

"Were approaching the slip-point" Rommie anounced. "Should i open a portal?" Dylan nodded. Rommie began to tap away at her console, but nothing happened. The engine made a huge creaking sound and then a large bang followed by a clunk and a powering down sound.

"Oh great. Just great" Dylan moaned. "Let me guess Rommie, The slip stream drive has failed. HARPER!" He cried.

Harper emerged from the wall pannel, with his torch and wrench.

"Hey boss, Just as i thought. It was the Anti-Matter injector. Its as dead as a donkey." He said over the intercom to dylan. "Theres more chance of rain on iligina than us jumping to slip stream now". Dylan, Who was standing on the command deck sighed. "And theres no atmoshpear on iligina" he said. "Estemated time untill repairs are completed?"

"Unknown sir. Should be a peice of cake, Done it loads of times before, but without trances help... it shouldent take more than a few hours" Harper replied.

"Do it Mr Harper" Dylan said. "Work as quickly as you can".

Beka walked into the engine room in which Harper was working just as he turned off his comunicator to dylan.

"How you doing harp?" She asked him softly. She handed him a tool.

"Me... im ok.. Its just trance... I cant stop thinking about her." He replied sadly. Beka patted him on the shoulder.  
"Yeah, We are all very sad" Beka said. "But we cant let that get in the way of our mission". Harper smiled, and started to fiddle with a part of the engine. He shot back with an electric shock, squelling in pain.

"Owch... Oh yeah, Its just Kryten told me that it was no longer a matter of if, it was a matter of when" Beka frowned. Harper noticed she had a tear in her eye.

"Yeah, I know" she sobbed. "But you know Trance. She is full of surprises" Beka stood up and patted him on the back, then left the room. Harper continued to repair the engine. He was remembering all the fun that they used to have, the games they used to play back when she was purple. Lister came wondering in.

"Oh hi harper, I was just talking to that... that Hellogaurn guy. He seems a nice fella, and he said he knows a lot about slipsteam drives" Lister told Harper. Harper looked at him.

"Not as much as me, Harper the freaken genius" he said. Hell walked in and crouched down next to him. He studied the engine for a few seconds, then turned to harper.

"Ahh, I see. Just recalibrate the antimatter drive to 180 then max it out after a few seconds. That should blow-out the engine, then you can simpley retune it back to the way it was" Hell told Harper. He thought about it for a second.

"Hey... That just might work!" he said. He tried it.

"Dylan the slipstream drive is back online" Rommie stated to dylan, who laughed.

"I told him to work fast" Dylan said "He actually listened to me". Rommie smiled as Beka walked onto the bridge.

"Lets get this show on the road" She said, Activating the slip-stream controlls. Rommie opened up a slip portal, and the andromeda disapeared into slipstream. Beka rode the strings of slipstream untill she jetesened the andromeda out of the other end.  
"Rommie SitRep" dylan asked as they left slipstream.

"We have emerged presicly 15 lightminutes from the Gemini star and surrounding planets. No sign of any genite craft in the parrimeter, but i am yet to conduct a thorough search"

"Send out sensor drones" Dylan commanded.  
"Aye Aye" Rommie replied. The andromeda opened up and the Sensor Drones emerged from the inner hull.

"Scanning" Rommie said.

"All ahead full" dylan asked. Beka accelerated the andromeda to full non-slipsteam speed.

"The gemini star and helgar 4 is now within visual contact" Rommie stated. She Brought the view up onto the screen.

"There she is" Hell said while pointing at Helgar 4 as it orbited the gemini star.  
"Are there any genite ships inside the vicinity?" Dylan asked.

"No..." Rommie replied "Hang on.. Wait... Im picking up a contact too the south... And the west... incoming genite attack crafts". The two ships circled the andromeda and then entered attack formation. Side by side they swooped down towards the andromeda and began attack manouveurs.

"Rommie, Target with after phasors, tubes 1 through 4" Dylan ordered. The andromeda fired its payload of phasor towards the targets, clipping the wing off one of the genite attack crafts and sending it tumbling out of controll. The other genite craft managed to dodge the phasor, and proceeded to launch missiles towards the andromeda.

"Brace" rommie cried, the entire ship shook as the missles hit. Sparks began to fly inside the bridge, as the crew held onto the rails.

"Rommie, Swat that fly!" Harper cried. Rommie fired a heat seaking missile that homed in on the craft. The genite tried to outrun the missile, but failed.

"Both genite crafts have been destroyed" Rommie stated.

"Good work" Dylan said. "Still, Theres no mother ship. We have to get down to Helgar 4. Lister, Stay on the andromeda with Rommie and Harper and cover us while Me, Beka and Hell make our way to Helgar 4s surface inside the Maru" Lister nodded and went and stood in Dylans position.

"He never lets me take command!" Harper said to lister, as Dylan, Hell and Beka made their ways to the Maru.

The Maru took off from the andromedas hanger, and proceeded to fly into outer space and towards Helgar 4. On boared, Dylan polished his force lance and Hell sat thinking about the heart of gemini.

"When you see it, the artifact, You might just fall in love with it" Hell told dylan. "Its such an amazing object, Such a beutifull peice of history". Dylan wondered why Hell was so fond of it.

"Im sure it is" He replied. As the Maru approached the huge star of gemini, Beka noticed the readings coming from the sun were unusual.

"Dylan, Its strange. The star, Gemini, Its giving me really strange readings.. The radiation levels go of the chart. Its allmost as if... I dont know" She said. Hell did not say a word. Dylan looked out of the Marus window, and watched the sun coming into view. He could see solar flares spurting out of the star, and strange patterns appearing on the Heat vision scan of the star. That second, Rommies voice bleeped onto the maru.  
"Beka, You got... 4 genite fighters coming out of Helgar 4. There approaching you and are begining attack maneouveurs" Rommie told them. Beka checked her sensor screen.

"Damit, Shes right" Beka remarked "Hold on to your cookies people!". She did a 180 degree flip, then spun the ship onto its side. She charged at the genite ships, who charged back.

"Beka what the hell are you doing!" Dylan cried.  
"This" she said, Firing two missiles, both of which hit there intended targets. "1 down 3 to go" she said. The genite ships entered an attack formation. All 3 swooped towards the maru, firing there payload of rocket pods. Beka swerved the maru in and out of the rocket pods, dodging each on.

"Shes one hell of a pilot!" Hell cried as he watched the rocket pods float off into the distance.

"Yeah she is!" Dylan cried back, as the maru twisted and turned. Beka was laughing in the face of death. She swooped around the Maru and then fired a second missile, which hit another genite ship right in the aft. The craft spun out of controll, and smashed into the 3rd fighter. Both exploded into balls of flame.

"3 down, 1 to go!" Beka said, while laughing. That second, a huge plasma blast fired out of the andromeda, skimming the maru and destroying the last attack ship.

"You stole my kill rommie!" Beka moaned. Rommie, Harper and Lister could be heared laughing over the intercom.

"Nice work beka" Dylan said as the Maru turned and flew back towards Gemini and Helgar 4. As the maru approached the planet of Helgar 4, Dylan noticed a strange thing happening on the planets surface. From were they were, they could see a huge hole in the ground. Strange blue lights were begging to float towards the hole, and were gathering toghether.

"What the hell?" Dylan asked. "Is that... A giant plasma cannon?". His queston was soon answerd, when a huge beam of light blue plasma was hurling towards the star of gemini. It must have been a mile in diameter. Beka managed to swerve the maru away from the blast, But the plasma impacted the sun, Coursing a huge explosion. The plasma had created a hole in the sun and went right through, coming out of the other side. A huge soler flare spun up from the sun, and it was sent hurling through space.

"I think we just discovered what those unusual readings were caused by beka" dylan said slowly.

Trance screamed in excrutiating pain. Pain that you cannot imagine, Pain like no other. Harper came running in like a bullet to the medic bay, followed by Kryten.

"Trance!" Harper shouted. "Trance Gemini! What the hell is up with you!" Harper cried. He grabbed her. "Trance!" Trance lay there, not moving a muscle. She was trying her best to breathe.

"It is totally unexplained mr harper sir" Kryten said "It is almost as if randomly Miss Gemini is experiencing some kind of... i dont know sir. I know she is in extreame pain". Harper felt so sorry for her, He hugged her and told her she was going to be alright. Although deep down he knew otherwise.

"I want anwsers. I want them now" Dylan said. He had his force lance pressed violently against Hells neck. Hell squeled like a girl under the pressure, and eventually gave in.

"Ok, Ok.. Ill tell you.. Ill tell you!" He cried. "Stop, Take the weapon away. Stop!"

"What the hell were you guys doing down there? I had no idea that the commonwealth were firing plasma cannons at stars!" Dylan cried. "Speak!"

"We were working on... On a new kind of weapons technology... It was top secret! We... We were trying... trying to develop a way of controlling solar flares... We discoverd that If you fire the right kind of plasma at a star, you can eject the solar radiation at tremendes speeds in the direction in which you choose... imagine the power of a supernova within your grasp... it is only in expreimental stage at the moment, but we intend this new weapons technology to do good for the new commonwealth... not bad... please, we mean nobody any harm!" Hell cried. Dylan stood and thought about it.

"Its not that i am worried about doing anybody any harm" he said. "Its the fact that i was in the dark about all this". Dylan dropped his force lance from Hells neck, and hell, as a jibbering wreck, crawled over to sit against the wall.

"Belive me" hell said. "You are not the only one. Many commonwealth captians know nothing of this solar wind project". Hell begged dylan not to harm him, And dylan put his force lance away. He told Hell that he couldent harm him as he was a vital asset to the mission.

"I need you to lead us to where the Heart Of Gemini is" dylan told him. "Beka, Step on it. Bring us down to Helgar 4" Beka nodded and the maru swooped into the planets atmoshpear.

"Almost at the heart" Dylan whispered...


	5. Chapter 5

The maru landed on Helgar 4. Dylan and Beka stepped out, Followed by Hell. The planet was not too different from Earth, It had a breathable atmoshpear and a clear sky. The planets sun, Gemini, Was extreamily bright in the sky. The trees were green, the grass was green and there was even the sight of water glistening in the sunlight in the distance. Dylan was the first to comment on the heat.

"Boy it aint half hot here. I dunno how you researches managed to work in this heat" he said. Hell explained how at night the tempratures reached over -60 degrees centegrade. They climed up onto a green hill, with a large tree situated on it. Beka pulled out her binoculars, and proceeded to scan the area ahead.

"Is that the research outpost over there?" she asked, handing the binoculars to Hell and pointing with her finger.

"Yeah, You can just see the entrance from here. That is the landing-pad, and over there you can see the plasma cannon" Hell said pointing at the various structures in the distance.

"It looks like the genites have completely taken over the facility. They run the place" Dylan said. Then he noticed somthing in the distance, and grabbed the binoculours of Beka.

"Oh... Crap" he said "Looks like our genite freinds have landed their mothership on Helgar 4. Look, Over there" He said. Beka proceeded to zoom in with the binoculours.  
"My god, How did the andromedas sensors not pick it up?" Beka remarked.

"The same way that they dident pick up the plasma cannon" Hell explained. "The atmoshpear has been electronicly modified using huge electromagnetic generators, so even the newest high-gaurd sensor drones cant see through it" Dylan looked at him in shock. "Well, We need someway to keep our projects secret" he explained "They are extreamily classified after all". Dylan turned to beka.

"It makes you wonder what else the commonwealth are working on behind our back, Hey beka?" She nodded.

"Oh belive me dylan, Our research teams have discovered some things that you never thought possible..." Hell explained. That second, The party noticed the plasma cannon begin to collect light again.

"Dont look at the light!" Dylan said. They ducked down as the huge beam fired up towards the sun. A few seconds after the beam had been fired, Dylans comunicator bleeped. Rommie appeared on the screen.

"Dylan, Trance is in a bad state. Her breathing is almost non existant, and her heart rate is allmost 0. Its amazing she is still alive... I dont think shes going to last much longer" Beka grabbed the comunicator.

"You tell her to hang in there Rommie. Dont let her die. Please dont let her die!" Beka shouted at the top of her voice, she shook the communicator in anger.

"Beka!" Dylan cried "BEKA! Calm down. Calm down beka, throwing the comunicator around wont help anything... Trance is... I.. I think were just going to accept that her time has come..." Dylan said. Beka collapsed to the floor in a fit of tears.

"Beka" dylan said calmly. He put his arms around her "Beka, Look... Trance... She was an amazing person... She... She will go on to a better place... You hear me Beka?" Beka nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Dylan knew how to put his emotions away in order to complete his mission. He was just as fond as trance as any of the crew, But he learned long ago that loosing a crew member was no reason to abort, or even stall a vital mission. He pulled beka up onto her feet. "Beka, I know its a very sad time... But we need to complete our mission. We dident travel all this way too give up right here" he said. Rommie bleeped up onto the communicator again.

"Dylan, Those plasma blasts at the sun... They have caused the sun to freeze up... The star is beggining to crack." Rommie said. Sure enougth, as the three looked up to the sky, they could see shilowettes upon gemini as the sun began to crack and disintergrate. Hell had an amazed look on his face.  
"Facinating!" He cried. "By firing plasma cannons at the sun, the sun has began to freeze up. A side effect that our research teams had never predicted... Well, the weapon was experimental after all". Rommie appeared back up on screen.

"Dylan i have run the simulation. If 2 more plasma blasts hit that thing, then there is a 87 percent change that the sun will be forced into a supernova"

"Oh great" Dylan remarked. "Come on, We gotta stop that plasma cannon!" He cried. The three began to run towards the Research Outpost.

Lister stood on the command deck. He was looking out at the Star and Helgar 4. He noticed that the cracks on the star were beggining to become more frequent. That second, the star of gemini began to rapidly decrease in size, and the bright red colour was beggining to fade away into a frosty looking blue.  
"Rommie!... You... You should... Er, Come... come and see this" Lister said over the intercom. Rommie, who was analising the phasor beams on the ops deck heard him, but by the time that she had arrived upon the bridge, the blue star had frozen up into a solid hunk of rock.

"Have you ever seen anything like this?" Lister asked rommie. She shook her head.

"I have no explanation" She replied in confusion. "The star just shriveled up for no apparant reason... The only logical explanation would be that it happened due to the plasma cannon bombardments, but it still does not make any sense". The planet of helgar 4 was now without any sun, and was locked within a pernament darkness, one of which covered the entire planets surface. At first, dylan assumed that it was a quick change from day to night due to a natural change, but his mind was changed when Rommie contacted him and explained what had happened to the sun.

"The star of gemini is no longer emiiting any heat, Or light" she finished. Beka looked at dylan in fear.

"We gotta get inside the research centre before we freeze" she said. The three freinds could feel the temerpature dropping by the second, and then broke into a sprint.

Rommie walked into the medic room, In which trance was lying in agony, with harper knealing by her side, clentching onto her hand. Trance was crying in pain.

"Maybe... Maybe we should just shoot her" Harper suggested.

"It would probably be the best thing to do, Mr Harper sir" Kryten said. "The pain she is in must be extreamily umcompthtable" Rommie shook her head.  
"The final desicision is up to Dylan, As the ships captain" She told them. Harper pulled out his handgun and aimed it at trances head.

"You know what? Fuck dylan!" He cried. He armed the weapon and had his finger on the trigger ready to squeese. "Time to put trance out of her mysry! I cant stand seeing her like this!" He shouted at the top of his voice. "Its not fair!". He looked into Trances eyes, and then realised that he couldent bring himself to kill his best freind. He dropped the pistol on the floor, then just leant down and kissed her on the cheek instead. Rommie had disabled her emotions chip, because she knew she would not be able to keep herself together otherwise. Rommie put her hand on Harpers shoulder.

"Harper... Shes gone" Rommie said, Pointing at the heart rate moniter. A straight line was forming on the screen, and a long continous beeeeeeeeeep began to play. Harper just began to cry, hugging trances dead body.

Dylan, Beka and Hell sneaked up to the base. They had arrived at the research outpost and were approaching the door like spies, running their backs along the wall. Dylan stopped just alongside the door, and was about to open it, when a genite came wondering out of the door. He hid behind the open door, and then jumped out and grabbed the genite by the neck.

"Move, And i kill you" He whispered into the genites ear. The genite continued to struggle, but Dylan snapped his neck and then dropped the body. The three freinds then proceeded into the inner research outpost.

"Looks like your leading the way from here" Dylan said to Hell after they got inside the base. Hell nodded, and Beka and Dylan pulled out their weapons. As soon as they got to the end of the first corridoor, they heard the sounds of genites talking. Dylan peeked around the corner, then hid back against the wall again.

"3 on the left, 1 on the right" He whispered softly to Beka. "1...2...3". Beka and Dylan dived around the corner, blasting there lasers against the genites who fired back. Dylan dived behind a supply crate which was stacked up against the corridoor wall. He popped up over the top and fired a few shots, dropping the genites who cried as they fell to the ground.

"The base consits of many of these kinds of corridoors, connected together by research areas. Each research area has seperate things in. At the moment we are in the ironetic chrystals laboritroy. We need to try get to the weapons research section of the base in order to shut the plasma cannon down" Hell explained. Dylan stood up and went to collect the genites weapons.

"Lead the way... And use this:" He said, tossing Hell a gentite plasma rifle. Rommie appeared on dylans comunicator again.

"Dylan, Trance... Shes dead" Rommie told them. Beka frowned but remembered what dylan had said. She knew there would be a time to mourn for her, but it was not now. She sniffed, And then looked at dylan.

"Lets go" she said, holding back the tears.

"Thats my girl" he said to her, tapping her on the arm. "Come on".

"Harper. There was... There was nothing you could do" Lister said to Harper. He just sat there, crying.

"Ive known her for years" he said calmly. " I knew her when she was purple. I knew her when she was meerly a baby... But it was me who killed her. It was my fault" Lister sat and tried to comfort him.

"Come on man, It wasent your fault..." lister said. "Dont blame youself"

"I could have saved her from the maggog, but i dident" Harper sobbed.

"No man, You couldent. I was suprised you even managed to hold them back. There was hundreds of them. You did good man..." Lister told him.

"I killed her!" Harper cried. "It was my fault!"

Dylan, Beka and Hell sneaked alongside the wall. They came to a door.

"On the other side of this door, is the lab in which the cannon is activated" Hell claimed. The party could hear voices from inside the room. Dylan pulled out his force lance and set it to greneade mode, openining the door and throwing it in. The greneade blew up within a few seconds, sending genites flying all over the place. The three freinds ran in, shot the remaining straglers and then proceeded towards the computer systems.

"Which switch?" Dylan asked. Hell looked at the controlls. "I err, I just... I... Lemmie remember" Hell said. He sounded very confused. Dylan looked at him in anger.

"You dont remember?" Dylan shouted. "I dont belive this!" Dylan shouted. Hell shook his head and aproached the computer consoles. There were lots of buttons and consoles, each one different.

"I think its... This one!" Hell said. He quickly pressed one of the buttons. At first nothing happened, But then Beka and Dylan turned in surprise as a wall from behind them began to slowly rise. The wall slowly opened to reveal the wonder inside. The object was about the size of a tennis ball. It was a creamy white colour, and had sharp spikes emmiting from it, almost like the outside of a conker shell, but each spike was sleek and organic looking. At the tip of each of the spikes was a small glowing ball, that throbed gently, glowing from orange to gold in an almost magical way.

"And now" explained hell "I claim my prize!". He walked over to the object that was hidden inside the secret compartment, and picked it up. "The Heart Of Gemini itself!" He cried. Dylan looked at beka in disbelief.

"I dont belive this" He exclaimed "I dont belive this!"

"Thanks for your help in delivering me to this place without harm" Hell said, smiling smugly. "Now you can both die, and burn in the supernova that lies ahead" The door opened up and a handfull of armed genites ran into the room.

"You mean... You were working with the genites?" Dylan asked hell in disbilief. Hell smiled.  
"Well yes, And no. I was simply delivering you here to the genites. You see they wanted the legendary dylan hunt, and..."

"...And" A tall blonde man with an eyepatch interrupted while entering the room "We would offer hellogaurn here half of the profits made when we sell the heart". He was wearing a suit made from a strange substance that resembled human muscle. It had thick armour plating around the torso and abdominal areas. Dylan knew who this guy was.

"Appollo thickle" Dylan said "Leader of the genites...". Appollo strolled around the room with his hands behind his back, his metal boots clunking against the grated floor.

"Take the high gaurd captain hostage.." the man said to the gaurds, before turning to Beka "..And kill the girl". The genite gaurds proceeded to arrest Dylan, binding his hands with grav-cuffs. One held a gun at an uncooperative Beka's back and started to lead her to the door.

"You will never get away with this Appollo!" Dylan cried as he was lead out of the room at gunpoint "The Andromeda is drifting just outside of the atmoshpear, It will pick you off as you leave this planet!" Dylans voice disapeared as he was knocked out by a gaurd. Apollo stood on the spot for a second, In deep thought.

"On second thoughts, Keep the girl alive. We may need her as hostage" Appollo whispered into one of the genite gaurds ears. Beka, Who still had a gun at her back, heard this, and growled at Appollo. She proceeded to be lead out of the room. Appollo turned towards Hell, who was stoking the object, admiring its beuty.

"You did good Hellogourn" Appollo said. "You will get your 50 as promised, as soon as the heart is sold. I assume 50 will keep you happy? It is an uncomprimisable amount of money..." Hell was in a trance, staring at the heart of gemini.

"It seems... It seems such as shame to... to sell an item of such beuty" Appollo became suspicious at this point. He discreetly reached for his weapon which was attached to his belt, and rested his hand upon it.

"The item is worth an amazing sum of money hell, we would be crazy not to sell it" He said to Hell. Hell, who by this point had decided he would not allow the object to be sold, suddenly stood up in anger. His face was full of rage. "YOU WONT SELL IT!" He shouted. "ITS MINE! I WONT LET YOU SELL IT!" He turned quickly and began to sprint towards the exit. Appollo rolled his eyes, whipped out his handgun and simply shot a fleeing hell in the back, who fell to the floor in pain.

"Idiot" Appollo muttered under his breath. He approached a groaning hell, picked up the artifact, and then made his way towards the genite mothership.

Rommie was searching the Andromeda for harper. She eventually found him in Trances Crew Quaters. He was sobbing against Trances bed, Rommie went and sat down next to him on the bed, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"You ok harp?" Rommie asked in a soft voice.  
"Oh rommie..." he replied moaning "...Look". He proceeded to pick up a small silver fork from trances bed-side. "This was her cute little fork, She used to eat with it!. She used to use it to put the food into her cute little mouth!". It was that moment that Rommie realised harper was extreamily depressed. He kissed the fork, then put it into his pocket, then reached for a soft toy that was sitting on her bed.

"And this.." he sobbed, picking up the toy "This was her little toy. She never slept without it." He wiped the tears from his eyes, and then noticed that trance had a framed photo on her bedside table. He picked it up. The photo of him and trance, taken when trance was still purple. He began to cry again after thinking of the time that the picture was taken. Rommie hugged him, and then they were both interupted as a worn out lister came running into the room.

"Rommie!" He cried "Weve lost contact with dylan, beka and hell. I cant contact them using handheld communications, and they are not on the Maru! I think that they may have been captured" Rommie stood swiftly up and followed lister to the command deck.

"This day just gets better and better..." harper said to himself.


	6. Chapter 6

Dylan awoke. He looked around with blury vision, it took him a few seconds too focus his eyes, and even then he had trouble working out exactly where he was. He was locked in a prison cell, on the genite mothership. Beka was crouching next to him, already awake. She was thinking about trance's death. Dylan looked around for an escape opitunity, but couldent see one. There was an invisible electronic forcefeild covering the entrance to the cell, that from what he could tell could only be deactivated by a retinal scan from one of the many patrolling prison gaurds. He turned to Beka and realised she had a tear in her eye.

"Thinking about trance?" dylan asked.

"Yeah" Beka sobbed "We might never see her... i mean her body... again"

"Dont worry Beka, When we get out of this mess... And we will ... we will hold the best dam funeral imaginable for her" That second, the entire ship began to shake and rumble. A huge roar emmiting from the engine room located on the other side of the cell walls almost deafend them.  
"There're firing their thrusters!" Beka shouted amidst the racket. The genite mother ship was begginning to slowlys rise from Helgar 4s surface.

Rommie and Lister came rushing onto the bridge. Andromeda appeared on the mainscreen.

"I am detecting large ship leaving Helgar 4s atmoshpear... scanning... Its a genite mothership" Andromeda reported. Lister stepped up onto the command position.

"Rommie, target there main thrusters. Get ready to fire on my mark" He said. Rommie nodded and bleeped away at her console.

"Target locked" rommie said a few seconds later. Lister gave the order to fire, and andromeda ejected 3 torpedos which shot through space towards the genite mothership, and exploded on impact.

"Direct hit" rommie said smiling. "We have disabled there rear thrusters. Should i continue to attack the ship?... No... wait..." she paused. "Incoming transmission, Its coming from the genite ship. They want to talk to us". Lister clicked his neck.

"Open a coms-channel" He replied. Appollo thickle's face bleeped up onto the main screen.

"I would seise fire if i were you" appollo said grinning. Lister laughed and looked around.

"Oh really? Whys that?" He replied.

"I Have your captain and his lovely freind in my brig". Listers face turned from a smile into one of suspicsion.

"Rommie, Is there anyway you can confirm this?" He asked. Rommie tapped away at the console as appollo laughed at them over the inter-com.  
"I am picking up Dylan and Bekas vital signs aboard the ship, they are indeed in the ships brig" Rommie informed lister.

"So" Appollo said "Unless you want to wipe out Dylan, Beka and the Heart of gemini, i suggest you cease fire this instant." He disapeared of the screen as rommie ended the conference.

Beka and Dylan sat in their cell, both in deep thought. Dylan was trying to figure out an escape route, Beka was sitting still, counting the patrolling prison gaurds footstep's out of boredom. The engineers aboard the genite ship were trying to repair the rear engines that rommie had destroyed earlier. A few minutes later, Beka and Dylan noticed that two prison gaurds were having a conversation right outside of their cell.

"That Dylan guy... I heard he took down an entire army with his bare hands." The first gaurd whispered.

"Yeah. I heard he once used only his teeth to take out a neizchean" The second replied. Both gaurds shivered. Dylan, Who was listening in, was laughing. He turned to Beka.

"My reputation proceeds me" He said smiling.

"Maybe you should use those teeth of yours too bring down this forcefeild" Beka replied, looking over to the invisible forcefeild that covered the cell entrance. That moment, Beka had an idea. She ajusted her hair, cleared her throat and turned to dylan.

"How do i look?" she asked. Dylan replied with a smile.  
"Fantastic" he said. Beka laughed. She began to shout through the forcefeild to the gaurds standing outside of the cell.

"Hey boys" She said in a sexy voice "Could you too handsome fellas do me a faviour?" The two gaurds poked their heads around the corner, and looked at Beka. She batted her eyelids at them.

"What kind of faviour?" The first gaurd asked, smiling. Beka gave them the cutest look she could manage. Dylan knew what she was up too, and tried not too laugh at the two gaurds who were falling for it.

"Well... I am kinda cold. I was wondering if i could have, i dont know... a jacket or somthing?" Beka replied. The first gaurd turned and whispered to the second. Beka winked at Dylan.

"Hey boys... I am sure i could reward you in some way" She said in a very sexy way. Both gaurds got very exited. They looked at each other, then nodded.

"Certainly!" One said. "Wait a second... We will.. er.. go.. and get you... a nice warm blanket" One said.

"Thank you" She replied. "Ill make it up too you i promise". With that, the first gaurd stumbled, and then ran off towards the storage area to get an extra blanket.

Lister was stuck in a stale mate, He couldent fire upon the genite ship, but he couldent let them get away either. He realised that it would take the genites a few hours to repair there damadged engines, which gave him time that he so despratly needed. He, Harper and Rommie had to come up with a plan.

"What about the ureaka maru?" Harper asked, as he came strolling onto the bridge. He went and stood next to rommie, who was tapping away at her console.

"Huh? Oh yeah the maru. With dylan and beka aboard that ship, how are we going to get it back?" Lister asked rommie.

"Remote Piloiting" Rommie replied. She went on to explain how they could fly the Maru to the Andromeda via remote controll.

"And i simply fly it from here?" Lister asked, pointing at his controll pad. Harper butted in.

"There are cameras on boared the maru, you can use them to help you fly it" he said. Lister handed the controlls over to harper.

"I cant fly for a toffee" he said "Here harp, You do it". Harper smiled.

"Its just like flying a remote controlled airplane" he said "Its not hard".

"Yeah, But if i crash that thing, Beka will murder me" Lister replied. Harper shrugged and began to pilot the Maru. The craft began to rise from Helgar 4s atmoshpear.

The gaurd came running back down the corridoor towards Dylan and Bekas cell with a shiny, warm looking blanket. He bent over, and placed his face upon the Retinal Scanner. A laser scanned his eyeball, and the console bleeped. The forcefeild was now deactivated. Before the gaurd could toss in the blanket, Dylan had already thrust himself through the cell door, towards the first gaurd. The forcefeild was reactivated, so Beka was left inside the cell watching as dylan fought for his life. He still had his handcuffs on, but he managed to smash a gaurd with his head, and knock him down to the floor. He proceeded to headbut the second gaurd, who booted him in the chest. Dylan fell to the ground, and then got up and charged at the second gaurd, who pulled out his handgun. As the prison gaurd aimed his weapon, Dylan gritted his teeth and smiled. The gaurd, Who remembered the story of Dylan killing a neizchein with only his teeth, ran away in fear. Dylan booted the first gaurd who was trying to stand up, and then leant down next to the groaning genite. He reached down to the genites belt, and tried to pick up the keycard that would deactivate his grav-cuffs, a hard task when you have your hands bound. He managed it though, and then rubbed his wrists after releasing the restraints. He proceeded to lift the groaning gaurds body and drag it towards the retinal scanner. He forced the floppy head into the machine, and the forcefeild opened, giving Beka the chance to run out. Dylan used the keycard to remove Bekas handcuffs, and then reached down for the gaurds handgun.

"We gotta get you a weapon" dylan said to beka. Suddenly they were underfire, smoke and sparks were emmiting from all around them. They turned to see genite gaurds firing upon them from the far end of the cell block corridoors. Dylan and Beka dived behind the nearest cover, Which happened to be a large metal crate.

"Come on!" Dylan said. He looked around, and noticed a ventilation grate above them. "This way!" He cried, shooting at the metal grate. The grate fell off, and Beka and Dylan jumped up, held onto the entrance of the duct and then swung up, squeesing themelves into the ventilation system.

"Red alert. Red alert, Dangerous prisoners escaping prison block 5. Red alert, Red alert" The voice on the intercom repeated. There were spinning red lights throughout the ships corridoors and a very loud alarm ringing througout the ship. Appolo Thickle was standing on the bridge, clentching his fists in anger.

"Kill them on site!" He cried to one of his body gaurds. "Find them and kill them! Dylan hunt cannot get off this ship alive!" He turned and walked towards the heart, in which he had on his desk. "Protect this object at all costs!" He cried, pointing at the heart of gemini.

Dylan and Beka proceeded to drag themselves through the metal tunnels. They had no idea where they lead too.

"Look over there" Dylan whispered. The tunnel was too much of a tight fit for him to point, so he nodded his head in the direction of the ventilation duct he could see in the distance.

"A way out?" Beka asked. Dylan nodded. They dragged themselves towards it, then peered through the grate. Below them they could see alot of random junk, from broken space ship parts to mouldy food.

"Looks like a storage area of some sort" Dylan whispered.

"Perhaps a storage closet?" Beka replied. Dylan shrugged. He used his hands to punch the duct, and the metal grate fell down, clunking as it hit the floor. Both freinds proceeded to squeese out into the dark storage room, trying to leave the ventilation system while making as little noise as possible. After dropping down onto the floor, they both stood up. Dylan noticed that there was a few handguns and grenades resting on a box next to where they were standing, he tossed Beka and handgun and then clipped the greneades onto his belt.

"We gotta get that heart" Dylan whispered to Beka. She nodded, and they both approached the door, unaware of what was on the other side. Dylan opened the door, and peeked around the corner carefully.

"Coast is clear" he told Beka. They both left the store room and strolled out into the corridoor.

"Look!" Dylan said, pointing at a sign that read "Comunications Deck". Beka ran towards the door, and pressed her ear against it. She waved her arm to dylan, who approached her.

"Listen" she whispered to dylan "Theres someone in there."

"We have to get in there to contact rommie" he replied."On my mark. 3...2...1". Beka and dylan opened the door, then swifty entered the room. Before the two comunications officers who were present in the room could react, dylan had shot one while Beka had taken out the other.  
"Nicely done" Beka said turning to dylan. They looked around to see hundreds of consoles and computer screens, and lots of communications equipment.

"Did you see that? Perfect flying by the harper yet again!" Harper cried, after landing the Maru in the docking bay via remote controll from the Andromeda.

"Not quite, Harper. You collided with a tree on Helgar 4, and also bumped my inner docking bay twice" Rommie said.

"I hit a tree? Hey, it was dark down there!" Harper said. Rommie closed the docking bay doors.

"Im getting a transmission from the genite ship" Andromeda said, as her face appeared on the main screen. "Its audio only, i am recieving no visual signal" she said.

"Patch it through" Lister orded. That second, Dylans voice echoed around Andromedas command deck.

"Come in andromeda, This is me, Dylan" he said.

"Boss!" Harper cried.

"Im fine Mr Harper, And so is Beka" dylan replied.

"Dylan, How are you contacting us?" Rommie said. She was suspisious, perhaps it was a trap set by the genites.

"Rommie, We managed to get to the ships coms-deck. This is being transmitted via burst transmission"

"Roger" Rommie replied "Dylan... what should we do?"

"Get the Maru, Get it out here. Me and Beka will try and get the heart, but we need a ride of here. Get the Maru to the genite motherships docking bay" Dylan said.

"But boss, The genites. They are hardly going to let us come land in their bay? ... How will we get the landing bay doors open?" Harper replied.

"Dont worry Mr Harper, From here me and beka have complete controll over this ships landing bay doors" Dylan said. "We will try our hardest to get that artifact, But if we fail, Dont hesitate to destroy this ship, With us on it or not" dylan said. Rommie sighed.

"Aye Aye" She said.

"Hunt out" Dylan replied, as he ended the radio conference. Dylan turned to Beka.

"Stay here" He said. "Im gonna go get that artifact". He kissed Beka on the cheek, then turned to leave the room.

"Be carefull dylan!" She said as he walked out into the corridoor.

"Harper, Take the maru out there and wait for dylans signal. Once you recieve the go-ahead, proceed into the genite ships docking bay" Rommie orderd harper.

"Allways me." He sighed, then turned and began to make his way towards andromeda's hanger. He thought about the prospect of being on his own, as trance could no longer acompany him on such missions.

Dylan sneaked along the corridoors untill he reached a crossroad. He heard the footsteps of some guards aproaching, and quickly hid behind a wall. The guard came strolling past him, unaware that Dylan was only a few feet away. Dylan dived onto the gaurd, pushing him onto the floor. He swiftly proceeded to snap the gaurds neck, and then dragged the body into a dark corner, out of view. He then took off the genite gaurds armour, and put it on himself. Dylan stood up, fully suited out in a gleaming white suit of genite armour, complete with a face-mask, and then clunked his way down the corridoor. He passed a few other genite gaurds, who nodded at him as he did so. One of them called to him.

"Hey! You! Hunt!" The genite gaurd said, looking at dylan. Dylan almost fell over in shock. How did he know it was him? But he was releived when he looked down to see his armours name-tag, it read HUNT ARNOLD. Dylan knew he couldent reply, as he had no idea what Hunts voice sounded like, so instead he just turned and hoped that the other gaurd would not get suspicious.

"Did they catch that prisenor yet? I heard he was pretty dangerous..." The guard continued. Dylan just shrugged his shoulders. The gaurd decided that "Hunt Arnold" obviously was not in the mood for a chat, and walked away. Dylan sighed in releif, then continued to walk towards the elevator ahead. The elevator had a sign that read "To Bridge" next to it. Once he had rode the elevator, he walked towards the door that lead into the bridge. He knew that appollo was in there, with the rest of the gaurds, and knew that he was doing somthing extreamily risky. He approached the door, and with a sigh, he entered the room.

Harper strapped himself into the Maru's pilot position. He fired up the engines, and slowly eased the Maru out of andromeda's hanger. Once he had reached outerspace, he opened up a communications channel with Rommie.

"Harper Here" He said, appearing on the Andromedas main view screen "Ready for the go-ahead"

"Roger Harp" Rommie replied. Harper sat and waited.

Dylan entered the genite startship's command deck. The first thing he noticed was the The Heart Of Gemini, which was placed upon the table at the far end of the room. He looked over to where Appollo was standing, and also took note of the 20 or more gaurds that were dotted throughout the deck, each one weilding plasma rifles. Nervously, He approached Appollo. Appollo looked very annoyed, He was angry that Dylan was still on the run, and was shouting orders at the crew, telling them to find and kill him on sight. Dylan took a deep breath and went to stand beside Appollo, Taking his stance next to two other genite gaurds.

"You!" Appollo cried at one of the guards "Escort the artifact to the safe-room!". His voice boomed around the command deck. Dylan needed to take this opitunity, here was his chance.

"Ill do it" Dylan said after taking a deep breath. Appollo turned towards him.

"Hunt... Hunt Arnold? Hmm..." Appollo said, rubbing his chin. "Ok. You allways were a good solgier" He said, He picked up the artifact and handed it to Dylan. Dylan couldent belive his luck. "Keep it safe" Appollo ordered. Dylan walked towards the door, with the artifact under his arm. All of a sudden, a scared sounding voice echoed around the command deck.

"Mr Appollo sir, Mr Appollo!" the guard over the intercom cried. Appollo listened carefully. "Sir.. I just found Hunt Arnolds body... He is dead!" the gaurd cried. All eyes suddenly turned to Dylan. Including a very angry looking Appollo Thickle.

"Oh crap" Dylan said to himself calmly, Before turning and running away as fast as his armoured legs could carry him. Appollo, exploding in anger, ordered the gaurds to chase Dylan.

"GET THAT MAN!" He cried. "SHOOT HIM, KILL HIM! HE MUST DIE!"

Beka was sitting in the Communications deck. She had been listening to the entire conversation taking place on the command deck. She quickly opened a communications channel with Andromeda.

"Rommie!" Beka cried over the intercom "Come in Rommie! Give harper the signal, Dylan has the heart!"  
Rommie quickly gave the go-ahead to Harper, who fired up the Maru's engines and approached the genite ships main hanger. As he neared the hanger doors, Beka flicked the switch to open them, and Harper proceeded to land the Maru inside of the genite ship. The Genites had detected the Marus entrance, and had sent an entire security team down to the Hanger, to meet and take out Harper. Harper noticed them setting up defensive positions through out the hanger. He knew that he alone could not take out an entire genite security team. He opened up a channel with Beka.

"Hey beks, I got a problem, A genite security team have me cornered" He told her over the intercom.

"Stay there harper!" She cried, and ran out of the Communications Deck.

Dylan, who was out of breath, was sprinting down the corridoors, dodging genite laser fire and trying to avoid being taken out, all while clentching onto The Heart Of Gemini. He turned around and tossed a grenade, which exploded sending Genites tumbling through the air, then he continued running down the corridoors towards the hanger bay. He had guessed that Harper had landed there since he heard that a hostile ship had landed, due to an announcment over the ships intercom system.

Harper nervously twiddled his fingers, and paced around the Marus cockpit. He looked out of the window and noticed that the security team were beginning to approach the ship, flanking it in a swat-team fasion. There was no way he could take these guys on and win. He closed his eyes in fear as the genite security team shouted up at his ship.

"Come out, Pilot. If you come out with your hands up, We will not harm you" One of the Genite gaurds shouted up at the Maru. "If you stay on board, We will be forced to enter the ship and will kill you on sight". Harper crossed his fingers. After opening his eyes, he noticed a flashing light on the Marus controll panel. Underneath the light, was a red button, and the words "Auto Cannon". He quickly ran towards it and pressed the button. A little iron-plamsa cannon folded out of the Marus side, and began to scan the area for hostiles. It automaticly locked onto the approaching genite gaurds and began to fire at them. Genite gaurds were tumbling and rolling around, Trying to avoid the plasma shots, but failing. Soon the entire security team had been wiped out.  
"This ships better than i thought!" Harper said to himself. He proceeded to open the Marus exit door, and began walking down the ramp. He decided he would suit up in a suit of Genite armour, as Dylan did, in order to stealthily infiltrate the genite ship. He approached one of the dead gaurds and began to change into the Genite Armour.

Dylan had around 20 gaurds running after him, firing. He was running towards a T junction corridoor, and he noticed that Beka had her back against the wall.

"Good to see you beka!" He cried. She was confused at first, then she realised that Dylan was wearing a genite armour. They both took defensive positions behind walls, and began to hold back the genites.

"You too!" Beka cried amidst the gunshots. Dylan tossed a grenade, And continued to fire. After a few mintutes, the 20+ genites had been reduced to only a handfull, and Beka and Dylan both ran for the blastdoor at the far end of the corridoor. When they got through it, They shot the doors controll pannel, which sparked and exploded. The damadged door would take the genites at least an hour to get through, so Dylan knew they were ok for the moment. Dylan sighed, then put his back against the wall and slid down into a seating position. He was completly out of breath. He turned to beka.

"My god! That was close" He panted. "Thanks for the help..." Before Beka could awnser...

"FREEZE!" Beka and Dylan turned too see a genite gaurd aiming his weapon at them. They both lifted their hands, slowly. All of a sudden, Beka turned to dylan.

"I know that voice!" She said. She turned to the genite gaurd. "Harper?" She asked. The gaurd pulled off his helmet, to reveal Harpers smug face. He was laughing.

"I had you going there for a while, hey boss?" Harper said. Dylan sighed in relief.

"Do NOT do that again Mr Harper" Dylan said.

"You should have seen your face!" Harper said, laughing.

"Yeah, We can laugh about this later!" Beka cried. "Right now we gotta get outa here. There are a few angry genites on the other side of that blast door, And they want nothing more than to get in here and kill us."

Harper, Beka and Dylan ran towards the Maru. They darted up the ramp, which began to close the second that dylan was on board. Beka quickly strapped herself into the Maru's piloting seat.

"Good to be back in ol' eurika" she said, as she tapped away at the controll pannel. The Maru's engines started up, and as soon as they reached full power, Beka eased the Maru upwards. Harper locked a target onto the hanger doors, and then beka fired two rocket pods. They both exploded, ripping a huge hole in the side of the Hanger where the door once was. The Maru darted out of the newly created hole, passing through the flaming fire and rubble.

"Lister, Im picking up the Maru. Its leaving the Genite mothership, with Dylan, Beka and Harper on-board" Andromeda said, Appearing upon the main screen in the command deck. Lister clicked his neck.

"Ok Rommie, Hit that ship with everything we got!" He ordered. Rommie targeted the Genite mother ship, and fired a huge array of hundreds of Rockets, Lasers, Phasors, and Torpedos. They sped towards the genite ship, Beka had too avoid them by swerving the Maru away from the incoming projectiles. Dylan and Harper looked out of the back window, While the genite ship exploded. A huge glowing light, and then a massive ball of fire. The flames from the explosion were kissing the maru on the butt, and Beka surfed them like a flaming wave.

"Phew!" Dylan sighed while the maru landed inside of andromedas docking bay. Beka sat back, with her arms behind her head. Harper wiped the sweat of his forehead. They all looked at each other, and they all knew what each other was thinking about. Trance. Dylan looked at the Heart Of Gemini. "Mr Harper" he said "Take this too storage. Put it away, i better contact the commonewealth and tell them we got this baby".

"Sure boss. Just make sure that you tell the commonwealth how much trouble we went too to get it!" he said. He walked over to dylan and picked up the Heart, then left the Maru.

"So" Beka said sighing, And turning to dylan. "We survived another impossible mission"

"We did. But Trance dident" Dylan sighed. He had a tear in his eye.

"Dylan..." Beka said out of comfort.  
"Ive lost a lot of crew Beka... A lot of crew... But trance... She..." Dylan stuttered.

"...She was one of a kind" Beka replied.

Harper strolled down the corridoor past the medical bay, he was grasping the Heart under his arm. At first he walked straight passed the medical bay door, but after pausing he decided to enter the room. He walked over to the bed containing trances body and placed the heart onto the bedside table. He took a seat beside the bed, and then looked at trances lifeless face. He decided he would get one last look at her before her funeral, and then he began to whisper to the body.

"Oh Trance... You even look gorgeous when your dead" he said, turning towards the door. He was walking away from the bed, when he heard a strange humming sound coming from behind him. After spinning around, he noticed that the sound appeared to be coming from the Heart Of Gemni. It was glowing brighter than usual, and was buzzing queitly. He began to slowly approach the mysterious object, but to his shock the heart suddenly began to levitate. He fell over in surprise, as the object began to hover upwards. At this moment, Dylan entered the room, too see the heart of gemini floating in thin air, while harper stared at in shock on all fours. Dylan and Harper both watched in amazment as the object began to glow intesnly. The entire surface of the object was a getting brighter and brighter shade of yellow by the second, untill it was so imensly bright, that the pair were allmost blinded and could no longer look at it. The intense brightness was soon over when the heart exploded into a thousand miniscule glowing particles. Each particle appeared to have wings, and they fluttered around like tiny butterflys. Dylan and Harper watched as the tiny insect like particles began to home in onto trances dead body like screws to a magnet, soon her entire body was covered in a layer of glowing particles, untill each one suddenly disolved into Trances skin. A few seconds later, Trances body began to float upwards. She was floating towards the ceiling. Harper watched in fear, as Trances body began to rise, He stood up and began shouting her name. Once it had reached the ceiling, Trances body lit up into a brilliant gold, before falling down towards the floor. Harper, who was by this time undescribebly freaked out, managed to catch her in his arms before she hit the floor. Trance opened her eyes, and looked up at harper smiling. Harper allmost died in surprise before fainting, dropping trance hard on the floor in the process. A sore- bottomed trance stood up, brushing her self off.

"Trance...y..y..yoou..you...and...what?...Huh...Why?...Are you ok?" Dylan stuttered in shock.

"Im fine. Im absolutly fine" She replied calmly.

"Trance... You died" Dylan replied "The infection, You stopped breathing" Trance dident reply. She bent down and lightly tapped Harper on the cheeks, Who shot up in surprise.

"AHH!" He cried. "How... How trance?" Harper asked.

"Harper. I could try to explain it, But you would never understand" Trance whispered. Harper was about to start asking hundreds of questons, when trance changed the subject by kissing him on the lips.

"Well, that was unexpected" Harper said. He kissed her back. "I cant belive your back!" He cried. Dylan left the room to give the two privacy.

At the moment that trances heart began to beat, The star of Gemini had reignighted. The shriveld up rock had transformed back into the flaming ball of fire it once was, and expanded back to its original size. The star of gemini was burning again, and Rommie and Lister had seen the whole thing from the command deck. Beka came stiding onto the deck and as she did so, lister quickly began to show off.

"So Rommie... Did you see the way i took out that mothership?" He asked in an attempt to impress Beka. Rommie just rolled her eyes and ignored him. Beka walked over to where lister was standing.

"Yeah, Your an amazing guy lister.." Beka said, sarcasticly. "Perhaps you should pilot us through slip-steam?" She smiled "Did you know that one little mistake made during slip-steam can cause the entire ship, oh and anything or anyone who happens to be in it to collapse down to the size of an atom?". Lister shook his head.

"I think i will give it a miss" He replied.

"Thought so" Beka joked.

"So, Miss valentine... Are you going to give me this valentines day kiss or what?" Lister asked grinning. He pointed to his cheek. Beka looked at her watch.

"No, Because its not Valentines day anymore." Beka stated. She showed lister her watch that read 00:04, 15th feb. Lister kicked himself as Beka and Rommie began to laugh.

"Better luck next year, Squire" Rommie said while laughing.

Dylan paced around his quaters. He was in deep thought, thinking about how Trance. He had just finished a conversation with a superieor commonwealth high gaurd officer, in which he had to lie and say that the artifact was destroyed by the genite motherships explosion. Trance entered dylans quaters, grasping a potted plant in her hand. The door shut behind her.

"You wanted to see me sir?" She asked inocently. Dylan gestered his hand towards the desk, and she pulled out a chair and sat on it. She smiled at him.

"Trance...The star of gemini..." Dylan began, Before he was interupted by a quick-to-anwser Trance.

"...Yes, It is me and I am it" She replied. Dylan sat and thought for a second, Then he continued.

"So trance... The scratch. The infection, were they?..."

"No" She replied. "The maggog scratch had nothing to do with my death"

"Then it was due to... to the attacks upon your star right? The weapons experiments?"

"I felt each one like a dagger through the heart." Trance explained, And at that moment, Dylan felt extreamily sorry for her.

"So... The heart of gemini..."

"I cannot explain the heart in a way that you would understand Dylan. But understand this; It was not pure chance that lead you on the mission to get the heart. It was not pure chance that lead the artifact, my saviour, into your hands, onto the andromeda." Dylan was thrust into deep thought.

"All things in the universe are born, live their lives, and then die" trance said looking at her plant. "But i have not yet completed my mission, there fore my time to go has not yet came. The premeture destruction of my star was fore-seen when i was created, many eons ago, and the Heart Of Gemini was created as a fail-safe. Just in case." Dylan looked at trance in confusion.

"Who created you trance? And what is your mission?" he asked.

"That i will not say. And even if i did, You would not understand" Trance replied. Before dylan could continue, she had left the room.

Harper had his head in a cola machine on Ops deck, when trance approached him.

"Hey babe, Pass us that tool would ya?" He said pointing at a nearby spanner.

"Sure" She replied.  
"Your a star Trance" Harper replied.

The end.

Please review! Check out my other storys if you want.


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